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Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee National Holiday in 2001.  Wilma Pearl Mankiller (November 18, 1945 – April 6, 2010) was the first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She served as principal chief for ten years from 1985 to 1995.

Early life

Wilma Pearl Mankiller was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the sixth of eleven children, to Charley Mankiller (November 15, 1914 – February 20, 1971) and Clara Irene Sitton (born September 18, 1921).  Her father was a full-blooded Cherokee and her mother was a Caucasian woman of Dutch and Irish descent who acculturated herself to Cherokee life.

The family surname, Mankiller, refers to a traditional Cherokee military rank; it is Asgaya-dihi in the Cherokee language.   Alternative spellings are Outacity or Outacite.

The Mankiller family was destitute, and initially resided on Charley’s allotment lands of Mankiller Flats near Rocky Mountain, Oklahoma.  In 1942, during World War II, the United States Army exercised eminent domain for military purposes and took over the land of 45 Cherokee families, including the Mankillers, in order to expand Camp Gruber. The Mankillers willingly left Oklahoma under the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Indian Relocation Program. The family relocated to San Francisco in 1956, and later settled in Daly City.

In 1963, at the age of 17, Mankiller married Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi, an Ecuadorian college student. They moved to Oakland and had two daughters, Felicia Olaya, born in 1964, and Gina Olaya, born in 1966.

Mankiller returned to school, first at Skyline College, and then San Francisco State University.   She had been very involved in San Francisco’s Indian Center throughout her time in California. In the late 1960s, Mankiller joined the activist movement and participated in the Occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969. For five years, she volunteered for the Pit River Tribe.

After divorcing Hugo Olaya, in 1977 Mankiller moved back to Oklahoma with her two young daughters, in hopes of helping her own people. She began an entry-level job for the Cherokee Nation.

A Tribute To Wilma Mankiller

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The first woman to become principle cheif of the Cherokee Nation.  May she rest in peace.
Copyright: The song and ALL photographs are not owned by PureHistory, but by their respected owners and are in no way associated in PureHistory. This video is made only to honor this woman life and all she has done for her people.

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