Wilma Mankiller
Charlie L. Soap, photographer. Wilma Mankiller, full-length portrait / Charlie L. Soap. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2006686215/>.
Choctaw Chief Hollis Roberts, and Gov. David Walters, Cherokee Principal Chief, Wilma Mankiller, Chickasaw Gov. Bill Anoatubby
Jim Beckel, “Choctaw Chief Hollis Roberts, and Gov. David Walters, Cherokee Principal Chief, Wilma Mankiller, Chickasaw Gov. Bill Anoatubby,” Oklahoma Publishing Company, 1992. Oklahoma Historical Society.
This video was created by the New-York Historical Society Teen Leaders in collaboration with the Untold project.
Wilma Pearl Mankiller was born on November 18, 1945, at the W. W. Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. Her father was Cherokee, and her mother was a white woman. Wilma had five older and five younger siblings. Their family name Mankiller was traditionally a title given to brave Indigenous warriors who had been responsible for protecting the tribe.
The family moved to San Francisco when Wilma was 11 years old. Thanks to the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, their moving expenses were covered by the U.S. government and they were eligible for job training. The government promoted the program as a great opportunity for Indigenous communities. In reality, the goal was to Americanize Indigenous families, loosen their ties to their culture, and weaken the political power of tribes on reservations. Wilma described the move as “my own Trail of Tears.”
Wilma did not like living in a big city. Using money she made from babysitting, she bought a bus ticket and fled to her maternal grandparents’ ranch in Riverbank, California. Her dad picked her up and brought her back to San Francisco that same day. But Wilma was determined. After five trips to Riverbank, her parents decided to let her stay with her grandparents.
After a year on the ranch, Wilma felt ready to return to San Francisco. She soon discove