Today, I have an extraordinary story of Wilma Mankiller, a badass disabled woman. She participated in the occupation of Alcatraz, was the Time woman of the year, was the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, won the medal of freedom in 1998, and lived with polycystic kidney disease.
Wilma Mankiller participated in the occupation of Alcatraz, was the Time woman of the year, was the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, won the medal of freedom in 1998, and lived with polycystic kidney disease. Click To TweetThe first thing you notice about Wilma Mankiller is her name. It’s not every day you meet someone with a name like Mankiller. In Cherokee her name is Asgaya-dihi which was a title or rank given to someone in the tribe.
The early life of Wilma Mankiller
(1945-2010)
It’s hard to sum up the life of Wilma Mankiller in just a blog post. She grew up on Mankiller flats in Oklahoma surrounded by many members of her family and tribe. Her life was upended in the 1950s when the Bureau of Indian Affairs decided it needed a new way to deal with the “Indian Problem.” Their solution was called “Termination” for the termination of the system of Indian reservations across the country. In 1956 Wilma and her family left for San Francisco. Wilma was just 11 years old, and to her, it felt like her own Trail of Tears.¹ In San Francisco Wilma and other Native Americans experienced racism on a regular basis. Despite the discrimination she faced, Wilma went on to marry, have children, and divorce in her many years living in San Francisco.
Other posts in this series:
Disabled Women in History: Elizabeth Jefferson
Wilma Mankiller a badass disabled woman: Polycystic kidney disease
Wilma was pregnant with her first child when she began to have strange symptoms. They treated her for a kidney infection and then sent her on her way. It was only a few years later when her father was diagnosed with genetic end-stage polycystic kidney disease that her health issues became clear. Wilma inherited the disease from her father.
Imagine finding out your father was going to die, and that you had the same thing he did. It must have been heartbreaking. At the time there were few options for treatments as kidney transplants were not widely available.
Polycystic kidney disease is a genetic condition where cysts appear on the kidneys. The cysts can grow and overcome the healthy tissue causing the kidneys to fail. Some people can live their whole lives with the disease, but others have more serious cases. Wilma and her father both had a severe form of the disease. It was years later when Wilma was running in her first election as Chief that her kidney problems became more serious. This lead to her having a kidney transplant in 1990.
Wilma Mankiller a badass disabled woman: Other health problems
Shortly after returning to Oklahoma from San Francisco Wilma was in a car accident. She crushed her face and one of her lungs. She also broke her ribs and ankles. Wilma recalls that she made an unconscious choice to return to life afterward:
I began to think of death as walking into spirit country rather than a frightening event. Even though more brushes with death were ahead, the idea of dying no longer frightened me.
It took Wilma a long time to recover from such debilitating injuries. She had 17 surgeries, and at one point they thought they’d have to amputate her leg. She was a wheelchair user for some time.
After the accident, Wilma Mankiller decided to take a “Cherokee approach” to life with a disability by taking whatever one is given. Wilma tried to approach all her healing this way.
Myasthenia Gravis
However, she didn’t have an easy journey. While she was still recovering from her car accident she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a form of muscular dystrophy. She decided to have surgery to remove her thymus, and the operation was successful. According to Wilma:
I drew on the strenth of my ancestors and of present day Cherokee medicine people, and on my own internal resolve to remove all negative factors from my life so I could focus on healing¹.
There were times when she felt rage of course, especially towards Western medicine and the way it dehumanizes patients. Being disabled or chronically ill is hard on everyone, and Wilma Mankiller was no exception. Anyone with a chronic illness or disability knows that the system causes significant damage.
Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
Wilma returned home to Oklahoma after a divorce in 1977 and shortly after became the economic stimulus coordinator for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. At the time, the power base for the tribe was mostly men, but Wilma quickly grew influential in the tribe due to her grant writing skills gained in San Francisco.
In 1983 Wilma was asked to run as deputy chief to Ross Swimmer in the next election. Initially, she told him no but eventually realized that this was a way to make a big difference in the community. During the election, the #1 issue was the fact that she was a woman. Some thought it would make people laugh at the tribe, others thought it was an offense to God, but she was ultimately elected.
Woman can help turn the world right side up. We bring a more collaborative approach to government. And if we do not participate, the decisions will be made without us. -Sep. 1984
Chief Swimmer was asked to be the head of the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) only two years later. According to the Cherokee constitution, he had to be replaced by the deputy principal chief, Wilma Mankiller. Wilma was the first woman to lead any major Native American tribe. She hoped that women and girls would realize that they too could assume leadership roles in the community.
For more information
I could have written a blog post three times this long, but it wouldn’t be enough to explain the many accomplishments of Wilma Mankiller. I highly recommend reading her book “Mankiller: A Chief and Her People” (affiliate link) for the rest of her story.
Sources
- Mankiller, Wilma. Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993. Print
2. Linda D. Wilson, “Mankiller, Wilma Pearl,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=MA013.
3. The History Chicks Podcast: Episode 140 Wilma Mankiller. Graham, Becket and Vollenweider, Susan. http://thehistorychicks.com/episode-140-wilma-mankiller/
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