TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Former Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller, one of the few women ever to lead a major American Indian tribe, has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, her husband said March 2.
Charlie Soap, Mankiller’s husband and Cherokee Nation Community Services group leader, made the announcement in a March 2 news release. In it, Soap and the 64-year-old Mankiller wrote that she has stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer but gave no other details.
“I decided to issue this statement because I want my family and friends to know that I am mentally and spiritually prepared for this journey, a journey that all human beings will take at one time or another,” Mankiller states. “It’s been my privilege to meet and be touched by thousands of people in my life, and I regret not being able to deliver this message personally to so many of you.”
Mankiller served as principal chief from 1985 until retiring in 1995. Prior to becoming principal chief, she served as deputy chief under Ross Swimmer. She assumed the principal chief position and served out the remainder of the 1983-87 term after Swimmer resigned to take a Bureau of Indian Affairs job in Washington, D.C. She was elected principal chief in 1987 and 1991.
While principal chief, she visited in Washington with three U.S. presidents – Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton – to discuss tribal issues. Clinton presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998.
According to a CN press release, Mankiller was born in 1945 at W.W. Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah. At age 10, her family moved from Mankiller Flats in Adair County to San Francisco as part of the BIA Relocation Program, where she lived for two decades before returning to Oklahoma in 1977.
With a bachelor’s degree in social science, she was the founding director of the CN Community Development Department, which received national awards for innovative use of self-help in housing and water projects in low-income Cherokee communities.
She and Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah co-chaired a national conference between tribal leaders and Cabinet members that helped establish the Office of Indian Justice within the U.S. Department of Justice. Her tenure was also marked by new development, including several free-standing health clinics, an $11 million Job Corps center and services for children and youth. She also led the team that developed the core businesses comprising the formerly named Cherokee Nation Enterprises, now Cherokee Nation Businesses.
She has authored, co-authored and co-edited several published works, including “Every Day is a Good Day” by Fulcrum Publishing, “Mankiller: A Chief and Her People” by St. Martin’s Press and “A Reader’s Companion to the History of Women in the U.S.” by Houghton-Mifflin.
She has served on several philanthropic boards such as the Ford Foundation, the Ms. Foundation for Women and the Seventh Generation Fund.
She currently serves on the board of the Freedom Forum, as well as its subsidiary, the Newseum, a $400 million museum of the news being constructed on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington to promote the First Amendment.
She has served on the external Diversity Advisory Council for Merrill Lynch and has presented more than 100 lectures on the challenges facing Native Americans and women. She has also served as the Wayne Morse Professor at the University of Oregon, where she helped teach a class about tribal government, law and life. In September, Northeastern State University in Tahlequah named her as its first Sequoyah Institute Fellow.
Mankiller has achieved and accomplished much despite numerous physical ailments. A 1979 car accident nearly claimed her life and resulted in 17 operations. She has suffered from a muscular disorder called myasthenia gravis and underwent a kidney transplant in 1990. She has also battled lymphoma and breast cancer.
In her news release, Mankiller states she is “mentally and spiritually prepared for this journey.”
“I learned a long time ago that I can’t control the challenges the Creator sends my way, but I can control the way I think about them and deal with them,” she states. “On balance, I have been blessed with an extraordinarily rich and wonderful life, filled with incredible experiences. And I am grateful to have a support team composed of loving family and friends.”
She states she plans to spend her time with family and close friends “and engaging in activities I enjoy.”
Current Principal Chief Chad Smith called Mankiller “a mentor and friend” and said it was difficult to express how much Mankiller has meant to both him and the tribe. He called Mankiller “a true patriot of the Cherokee Nation.”
“I’ve got one story that helps sum up what kind of person she is,” Smith said. “The week after she received the Presidential Medal of Honor she was back home on the front porch of her family’s church. It was Memorial Day and there were decorations at the cemetery and it struck me how she could be just as comfortable meeting with the president as she was with her own people, honoring her ancestors. It was an image of someone who was truly humble, and you don’t meet too many people like that.”
Mankiller wrote that if people want to send her a message, they can e-mail her at
Honorary Doctorate Degrees:
· Yale University
· Dartmouth College
· Smith College
· Mills College
· Northern Arizona University
· University of Oklahoma
· Oklahoma City University
· Oklahoma State University
· Tulsa University
· Drury College
· Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
· Rhode Island College
· New England University
· Northeastern State University
Honors:
· Presidential Medal of Freedom
· Montgomery Fellowship, Dartmouth College
· The Chubb Fellowship, Timothy Dwight College, Yale University
· San Francisco State University, Hall of Fame
· San Francisco State Alumna of the Year (1988)
· International Women of Distinction Award, Alpha Delta Kappa
· Oklahoma Hall of Fame
· Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame
· National Women’s Hall of Fame
· International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame
· Minority Business Hall of Fame
· Women of the Year, Oklahoma Federation of Indian Women
· Woman of the Year, Ms. Magazine
· Celebration of Heroes, Newsweek Cover Story
· ABC Person of the Week, ABC Nightly News
· National Racial Justice Award
· Henry G. Bennett Distinguished Service Award, Oklahoma State University
· John W. Gardner Leadership Award, Independent Sector
· United States Public Health Service Leadership Award
· Humanitarian Award, National Conference of Christians and Jews
· The Dorothy Height Lifetime Achievement Award
· The Elizabeth Blackwell Award
· 50 Most Influential People of the Century, in Oklahoma
· 50 Most Important People in the U.S., Who’s Who
· Hero, Glamour Magazine, 2006