Wilma Mankiller was born in 1945, as WWII was winding down.  She became very interested in and active in Native American causes.  The late 1960’s found Wilma in San Francisco.  There she gained skills in community organization and program development.  Earning 56 percent of the vote, Mankiller became the first woman elected Cherokee Principal Chief in the Cherokee election of 1987.

Mankiller was both the first woman Deputy Chief and first woman Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Overcoming many personal tragedies, she returned home to Mankiller Flats, Oklahoma to establish herself as a political power.  She worked for the betterment of all people. Born at Tahlequah, the capitol of the Cherokee Nation, in November 1945, she was raised in Mankiller Flats until she was ten years old.  Her father was Charlie Mankiller, Cherokee, and her mother was Irene Mankiller, Dutch-Irish. She had four sisters and six brothers.

Trail of Tears

Over 16,000  Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and African slaves dragged themselves along the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma during the “removal period.”  Mankiller’s great-grandfather was among those exiled.   This occurred during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. 

Between 1790 and 1830 the population of Georgia increased six-fold. A problem occurred by this western push of the settlers.  The Georgians continued to take Native American Lands! This,ultimately, forced the Indians into the frontier. By 1825 the Lower Creek had been completely removed from the state under provisions of the Treaty of Indian Springs. By 1827 the Creek were gone.

Cherokee had long called western Georgia home. The Cherokee Nation continued in until 1828. It was then that the rumored gold, for which De Soto had relentlessly searched, was discovered in the North Georgia mountains.

Cherokee Rose
The Cherokee were not nomadic savages.   They had actually become adept at simulating many European customs.   This included the wearing of gowns by Cherokee women. They built roads, schools and churches, had a system of representational government, and were farmers and cattle ranchers. A Cherokee alphabet, the “Talking Leaves” was perfected by Sequoia.

“I would sooner be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalized” Davy Crockett
His political career destroyed because he supported the Cherokee, he left Washington D. C. and headed west to Texas.