Statement on Wilma Mankiller from Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation:

"Wilma is a mentor and friend. It’s hard to express how much she means to me personally and the Cherokee people as a Nation. I’ve got one story that helps sum up what kind of person she is. 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.

She is a true patriot of the Cherokee Nation, and it’s my privilege to follow in her footsteps as Chief. Any successes we have had in the past ten years since I took office were built upon the foundation she and Ross Swimmer helped lay. In the coming days, we will do whatever we can to assist her and her family, while allowing them the dignity and privacy they deserve."

WILMA PEARL MANKILLER BIOGRAPHY

Wilma Mankiller is an author, lecturer and former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. Her roots are planted deep in the rural community of Mankiller Flats in Adair County, Oklahoma where she has spent most of her life. She was born in 1945 at Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, and grew up with few amenities. At age 10, her family moved to San Francisco as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Relocation Program where she lived for two decades before returning to Oklahoma in 1977.

Wilma was the founding director of the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department, which received several national awards for innovative use of self-help in housing and water projects in low-income Cherokee communities. Then in 1983, she was elected the first female deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation, and president of the tribal council. In l987, she was elected to serve as the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, and was overwhelmingly re-elected in 1991. She chose not to seek re-election in l995.

During Wilma's tenure she met with Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton to present critical tribal issues, and she and Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah co-chaired a national conference between tribal leaders and cabinet members which helped facilitate the establishment of an Office of Indian Justice within the U.S. Department of Justice. Wilma's tenure was also marked by a great deal of new development, including several new free-standing health clinics, an $11 million Job Corps Center, and greatly expanded services for children and youth. She led the team that developed the core businesses which comprise Cherokee Nation Enterprises.

She has been honored with many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She has published several works, including, Every Day is a Good Day, Fulcrum Publishing 2004, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, co-authored, St. Martin's Press 1993, A Reader's Companion to the History of Women in the U.S., co-edited, Houghton-Mifflin 1998. She has also contributed to other publications, including an essay for Native Universe, the inaugural publication of the National Museum of the American Indian. Wilma Mankiller lives on the Mankiller family allotment in the Cherokee Nation with her husband, Charlie Soap.

General Background Information:

Current activities: She has served on several philanthropic boards, including twelve years on the board of trustees of the Ford Foundation, four years on the Board of the Ms. Foundation for Women, and four years on the board of the Seventh Generation Fund. She current serves on the board of the Freedom Forum and as well as its subsidiary, the Newseum, a $400 million museum of the news being constructed on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. to promote the First Amendment. She has served as a member of the external Diversity Advisory Council for Merrill Lynch. She has presented more than 100 lectures on the challenges facing Native Americans and women in the 21st century. She served as the Wayne Morse Professor at the University of Oregon for the fall semester, 2005 where she and Dr. Rennard Strickland taught a class on tribal government, law and life.

Education:

Bachelor of Science degree in social sciences, some graduate work in community planning.

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