Posted on 04/06/2010 10:19:20 AM PDT by JoeProBono
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Former Cherokee Nation Chief Wilma Mankiller, one of the few women ever to lead a major American Indian tribe, has died. She was 64. Tribal spokesman Mike Miller said Mankiller, who became one of the nation's most visible American Indian leaders during her 10 years as chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, died Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Wilma Pearl Mankiller (November 18, 1945-April 6, 2010) was the first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She served as the Principal Chief for ten years from 1985 to 1995. She died of pancreatic cancer on April 6, 2010
The family surname, Mankiller, is a traditional Cherokee military rank and is Asgaya-dihi in Cherokee, which is alternatively spelled Outacity or Outacite.
RIP. That is very young.
Sad.
I met her when I was in grad school in 1972.
Putting this as delicately as possible, do you think her surname fitting?
I loved it!! Ha!!
Typical Tulsa Squirrel "reporting".
My section chief in the Army was an E-7 full blooded Cherokee (who had spent five years in the Navy as a code clerk and could type 105 WPM on a manual typewriter.) Really one heck of nice guy. He stood six foot zero, weighed about 130 and could easily hoist a folded GP medium tent over his head. Really wiry SOG.
I AM an American Indian....
And that was crappy writing....
I figured you were... LOL...
But, it still fits in the context of the article... News articles don’t have to be “devoid” of “style” you know ... :-)
Sad.
I am 1/8 Cherokee.
U-hyu’-s-ti Wilma Mankiller
I will hand you the style points....: )
I've mixed emotions/thoughts about these type's of "cultural awakenings"....
Too much to speak about here and now.....
FRegards,
Hey... I live in Indian Country too ... :-)
I’m not supposed to have Indian blood in me (at least no one told me) but I was born here, and I’ve been told that if you’re born here you probably have some Indian blood somewhere... LOL...
But, I am at least 1/4 English, to be sure, so I don’t know how that fits in... :-)
He was a very nice man.....A great outdoorsman....
I wish I'd of known him better.....He was a orphan and was schooled at Chilocco Indian School, Okla....where he met my Potawatomi Grandmother's sister.
They were married....
RIP Chief Mankiller.It is a rest well deserved for a life well led
RIP.
I never heard of this woman before reading this thread, and I just did a quick search. Ms. Mankiller is half Dutch & Irish. That might explain how she “grew up to become” American Indian. She began to explore the Cherokee side of her ancestry when she was an adult. Eventually, she embraced it as her entire identity.
Sounds like someone else we all know...
Her story makes a nice little history lesson, actually:
Politically, she was on the Left and was hailed as a hero by many on the Left. Interestingly, as per Wikipedia, there was a controversy when she was holding office: Some Cherokee were slaveowners. Once slavery was abolished, the former slaves (Cherokee freedmen) were enrolled into the Cherokee nation. Mankiller passed legislation to have the Freedmen descendants dismissed from the Cherokee Nation based on not having “Indian blood”.
It’s interesting how the Left works.
Good post.........
Thanks. I’m glad it didn’t make anyone angry on this thread. History is what it is.
Sometimes, it’s just interesting what the Left does.
The freedman issue is still around. They should have never let them in.
Heya Bro, so am I. Maybe.
My grandmother said she was 1/2 Cherokee, but she was born near Ada, OK, which is Chickasaw land, so now I'm wondering...
Indeed. See post #28
"Her story makes a nice little history lesson, actually: Politically, she was on the Left and was hailed as a hero by many on the Left. Interestingly, as per Wikipedia, there was a controversy when she was holding office: Some Cherokee were slaveowners. Once slavery was abolished, the former slaves (Cherokee freedmen) were enrolled into the Cherokee nation. Mankiller passed legislation to have the Freedmen descendants dismissed from the Cherokee Nation based on not having “Indian blood”. It’s interesting how the Left works."
Much of the book I wrote is about those Cherokee Slaves, including many testimonies by them taken in 1937. The group of Cherokee who fought to give their slaves land allotments in Cherokee Nation also allowed the freed slaves to attend their schoolsl, which were the finest in the nation. They also helped the newly 'free' slaves begin lives as free people.
[snip] The Treaty of 1866 negotiated by the Cherokee Nation also remembered those others who had been a significant part of the struggle. It stated:
"All native born Cherokees, all Indians, and whites legally members of the Nation by adoption, and all freedmen who have been liberated by voluntary act of their former owners or by law, as well as free colored persons who were in the country at the commencement of the rebellion, and are now residents therein, or who may return within six months from the 19th day of July, 1866, and their descendants, who reside within the limits of the Cherokee Nation, shall be taken and deemed to be, citizens of the Cherokee Nation."
[snip]2007 March Cherokee Tribe voted to no longer recognize descendants of Cherokee freedmen slaves as part of tribal membership, proving the more things change, the more they stay the same.
One freed slave, by then an old woman speaks of this:
[snip]" Later on when that treaty was made they all traveled to Tahlequah to hear it read. Accordin' to dat treaty, Cherokees and their slaves was to have equal rights. Brother Lewis and me both got our allotments. We will always be part of the Cherokee Nation."
http://jesusweptanamericanstory.blogspot.com/
These are the men, all Cherokee who negotiated that treaty. Stand Watie was also there, but not in the photograph.
Southern Cherokee delegation to Washington D. C. Fall 1866 L -R , John Rollin Ridge, Saladin Ridge Watie, Richard Fields, Elias Cornelius Boudinot, William Penn Adair
Outacite = Mankiller?
Out of sight!
But it didn't me...!!
I want to make sure my comments aren’t misunderstood: I was being critical of the legislation denying those Cherokee Freedmen the right to vote. The Cherokee brought them in when they enslaved them, and it was declared originally that, upon their freedom, they would be part of the Cherokee nation.
Thank you for that information.
History is interesting - especially when we find out what we didn’t know or weren’t taught in school.
I gather that you found it strange that a woman who was not full blood Cherokee would fight to keep people who had no Cherokee blood out of the tribe. I don’t find that strange, and don’t think anyone who isn’t descended from someone on the Dawes rolls should be allowed in. Even though that hurts me just as much as any freedmen descendants as a blood test would more than likely get me in the tribe.
So the Indians don’t live up to treaties either.
They cannot change a treaty by tribal law.
ART. 6, Clause 2: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
I don’t know how the current tribe got around that one, but they did.
Non-enrolled Cherokee ping.
That is exactly why I wrote a book about this. There is so much more to the story than I had been taught in school. My biggest surprise was all the stories my Dad told me, turned out to be true.
The Federal government was not happy that the Cherokee sided with the South in the Civil War and retaliated against them when any of them took issue with just about anything. Ten years after the war, my grgrgrandfather was arrested for treason and tried, even though their cessation of hostilities agreement stated there would be no retaliation against them by the feds. He was a lawyer, acted as his own attorney and won.
James Madison Bell, "Colo-Gotte-Yon", c. 1865
Elias Boudinot and Bell were leading advocates for the abolition of the tribal land system of the Indians. They and others wished to have the lands owned in severalty, which is ownership of real property by an individual as an individual; the same right to property as other Americans. They also championed the establishment of United States Courts in Indian Territory, and the abandonment of the tribal governments.
I’m 1/16 Cherokee as a gggrandmother “passed as white” and married a white. She was from Arkansas, but I don’t know exactly where. My gggrandfather fell overboard on a Mississippi River Boat and was buried near Marianna, Arkansas.
I was just analogizing to “lady killer”, a man who is a sucessful and careless lover. She looks like she might have been a babe in her day.
What a shame that didn't happen. Everything might've been much different today if it had.
My husband's family can trace one of their bloodlines to American Indian, through a great-grandparent, but I don't know which tribe. I don't think they know, either.
that hurts me just as much as any freedmen descendants as a blood test would more than likely get me in the tribe.
You probably meant the blood test would not let you in the tribe, either, right? But, imagine if your family had been accepted into the nation generations ago because they had been slaves in the tribe, and you had been living as a citizen of the nation generations later, only to have that citizenship revoked suddenly.
What's ironic isn't that they're denying people admittance if they have no evidence of Cherokee blood. The ironic part is that a hero of the Democrats, hailed for "bettering" the Cherokee Nation, dismissed a bunch of people whose families were with that nation a lot longer than she was, based on bloodlines, and the Dems are willing to overlook that part of the story.
I think whitewashing happens on both sides. She did do a lot to improve the Cherokee Nation. I don’t think that should be diminished because of her choices in regards to the freedmen. Discussed sure, but that doesn’t make her less of a positive force on the actual tribe.
I’m pretty sure that if I were given a blood test I would be found to be of at least some Cherokee descent. However, those ancestors chose to not be put on the rolls. I don’t think I should get to become a member of the tribe based on my blood.
Indeed, some whitewashing happens on this side, too.
A whole LOT of whitewashing happens on the other side.
It’s not like it happened 100 years ago. She was in power 1985-1995. Those freedmen were on the rolls. She and the others in power there decided to add a new requirement - bloodlines. It’s so ironic, considering all of the protests on behalf of American Indians against Columbus Day and other things.
We should never ever ever shy away from pointing out the hypocrisies on the Left/Democrat side. And that was a BIG one... lol.
Actually it is her mother, Clara Sitton, who was half Dutch & Irish. Wilma is half Cherokee. Her father is/was Charley Mankiller, whose parents were John Mankiller and Bettie Bolin Bendabout Canoe. John’s parents were Jack Mankiller and Susan Teehee Bearpaw. Jack’s parents were Kay-Skun-Ne (Ga-Skur-Ne_ Mankiller and Lucy Matoy both born in the Cherokee Nation east. This is the reason that the Mankillers had alloted land in Oklahoma/Indian Territory.
I just lost my best friend to that dreadful disease. She was 66...two months younger than myself.
My Dear Cousin in Talala OK was Good Friends with Chief Wilma.
She is heartbroken.
Yes, when I typed that Mankiller was half Dutch & Irish, I meant Wilma.
I realized that. :) Wilma Mankiller’s father was Cherokee. It is Wilma’s mother who is half dutch & Irish. Her ancestors I posted above. Her great great grandparents both were born in the Cherokee Nation east.
I think you mean that Wilma's mother was full Dutch & Irish.
Maybe we're each using different colloquialisms, and that's why there seems to be a misunderstanding. So, to clarify further:
When I say someone is half Dutch & Irish, I don't mean that person is half Dutch and the other half Irish. I mean half of their ancestry is Dutch/Irish. Half of Wilma's ancestry was Dutch & Irish through her mother's side. To be honest, I've never heard anyone say it your way.
Where I live, if someone were to say a person was "half Dutch & Irish," it would indicate there was another half that was some other ethnicity. But, Wilma's mother, as far as we know, was only of Dutch & Irish descent.
Yes, Wilma's other half was Cherokee through her father's side, as I pointed out in my first post: "Ms. Mankiller is half Dutch & Irish. That might explain how she 'grew up to become' American Indian. She began to explore the Cherokee side of her ancestry when she was an adult."
But, your point is well-taken: It's probably unfair of me to say that's why she grew up to become an American Indian. According to some accounts, she became more active in exploring that side of her heritage as an adult (sort of like Obama explored his Kenyan side), but that doesn't mean she wasn't always Cherokee (half, that is. Considering her concern about blood quantum, it's not unfair to point out hers.)
OH! I get it now. I misunderstood. Sorry!! You are right. LOLL I stupidly thought you meant she was half Irish & half Dutch. DOH me!
That’s OK. :-)
Have a good day!
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