http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=c8c80cfed37f0ed504c0782cc88f9d2a
by Khalil Abdullah
Oct 04, 2009
Editor's Note: Wilma Mankiller, the first woman chief of the Cherokee
Nation, says that when native women assume leadership positions, they
take a step forward for women and a step into tribal tradition at the
same time. Her activism began 40 years ago in November, when native
students occupied the island of Alcatraz near San Francisco.
Mankiller was honored as an extraordinary older woman at the AARP
conference on diversity and aging in Chicago. She was interviewed by
New America Media editor Khalil Abdullah.
--
"The watershed event in my life was when native students occupied
Alcatraz in November 1969," recalled Wilma Mankiller, who went on to
become the first woman chief principal of the Cherokee Nation.
Mankiller, 63, looks back 40 years later on how events and mentors --
including such luminaries as "Roots" author Alex Haley and United
Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta - shaped her activism. She
spoke when she was honored by AARP this summer as one of the nation's
extraordinary older women.
Mankiller was already married and raising children in the San
Francisco Bay Area when the occupation of Alcatraz began. Hers was a
conventional American marriage, with neatly defined roles of husband
and wife. Alcatraz was the beginning of a sea change in her life.
"When I took the boat out to Alcatraz with my two young daughters, my
life moved in a different direction and I never looked back," she
reminisced. It was at Alcatraz that she first heard native leaders
and saw native people stand up to the U.S. government over their rights.
The tumultuous year of 1969 was marked by such historical events as
Woodstock Nation, the Rolling Stones' tragic Altamont concert, the
Chicago Eight trial, the Mai Lai massacre in Viet Nam and men landing
on the moon. Yet, for Mankiller, the Alcatraz occupation was the
definitive eye-opening drama of the era.
Long abandoned as a federal penitentiary, Alcatraz was being
considered for conversion to everything from a park to a tourist resort.
With Thanksgiving approaching, a small band of American Indian
activists boated to occupy the island. They cited an old treaty,
which provided that unused federal land should return to the native
people. The stand-off with government authorities lasted 19 months.
"Inspired by Alcatraz," Mankiller recalled, "I began working as a
volunteer with the Pit River Tribe as they struggled to regain their
ancestral lands. That work eventually led me back to my own Cherokee
community in rural Eastern Oklahoma."
In the 1800s, the Cherokee were uprooted by the U.S. government from
their homelands in the southeastern United States. The forced
migration westward became known as the Trail of Tears.
In the mid-20th century, the federal government continued to relocate
native people, dissociating them from their culture and their
homeland, Mankiller said. Ironically, for her, the transplantation
failed to weaken her cultural identity. Witnessing the Alcatraz
occupation, instead, awakened it.
Yet, at an even earlier age, Mankiller had benefited from the
guidance of a mentor to give context and meaning to the events around
her. "My life would have turned out very differently if a woman at
the San Francisco Indian Center had not looked beyond my rough
exterior and seen potential in me," Mankiller confided.
She described how a staff member at the center, Justine Buckskin,
"extended a hand to me at a time I really needed it. So, when I think
about women's rights organizations, I think about women extending a
hand to other women."
Well aware that her name gets immediate attention, she explained that
in the Cherokee tradition, "Mankiller" was a title of the person
responsible for providing tribal security and protection. "One of my
ancestors held that position and adopted the title as his name," she said.
Among her inspirations was "Roots" author Alex Haley. In 1991, Wilma
Mankiller went to hear him speak in Tahlequah, Okla., her birthplace
and the capital of the Cherokee Nation.
That night, Haley -- who died only two months later shared his
frustration that so much ignorance persisted in the United States
about the African-American people and their contributions to America.
Mankiller saw the same problem in her community. "The biggest issue
for native people across the board is the fact that most Americans
know very little about native people," she stated. "Without any
historical knowledge -- or cultural context -- it's impossible to
understand our issues."
Along her path of evolving self-awareness, she met another mentor,
feminist writer and thinker Gloria Steinem. They became friends, and
when Steinem married at age 66, the ceremony was held at Mankiller's
home in Oklahoma.
"I think my first real practical role model," Mankiller said, "was a
Navajo woman named Dr. Jenny Joe, who started a series of programs of
children and youth. I was in my early 20s. She was the most educated
native woman I had ever seen."
Yet Mankiller, the first member of her family to attend college,
acknowledged that Native American cultures retain a distinctive
ethos. "My primary message is that native women share some of the
same challenges as other women but there are also differences," she said.
"Of the approximately 560 tribal governments in the United States,
more than 130 are led by women. When native women assume leadership
positions, they take a step forward for women and a step into tribal
tradition at the same time," Mankiller said.
Mankiller observed that she grew up learning conventional
restrictions on women's ambitions. "My concept of women's role has
dramatically changed and deepened over the course of the past four
decades. When I was young, women were not expected to become
senators, run major corporations, or even become president of the
United States."
According to the National Congress of American Indians, the number of
top women leaders has almost doubled since Mankiller was elected
chief in the 1980s. The reasons, say various experts, range from
increasing education and professional work experience among women, to
such modern social pressures as increasing divorce and single-parent
homes, which have compelled women to enhance their managerial skills
and community involvement.
During Mankiller's decade as the principal Cherokee chief, she
promoted health clinics, youth programs, and other projects to
improve infrastructure and foster development. She now spends time
encouraging greater philanthropic participation in Native American
issues and organizations.
Encouraged by the interest that Native American youth are exhibiting
in their heritage, Mankiller commented, "They are using every
technological tool available to them today, but they are also
interested in maintaining their culture, a strong sense of who they
are as young native people."
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