Wilma Mankiller: A Chief And Her People

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Wilma Mankiller became a significant figure in history when she was named the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1985. Mankiller was born in rural Oklahoma in November of 1945. However, in the 1950s, her family moved from their home in Oklahoma to San Francisco under a government relocation project. The traumatizing move brought the family into a world of severe racism and poverty that would sculpt Wilma Mankiller into an activist for Cherokees and other Native American tribes alike. In her autobiography, Mankiller recounts her own personal struggles mixed with the tragic history of the Cherokee people. Mankiller: A Chief and Her People begins by introducing the Mankiller family and tells of Cherokee life before the