Wilma Mankiller
Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1945-2010) · United States · On the map · Writers · Died at 64
Wilma Pearl Mankiller was a Native American activist, social worker, community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Wilma Mankiller is read about 307 times a day, in 28 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 400 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
Media & music
Photos 6
Alcatraz Occupation "Welcome to Indian Land" graffiti
Cherokee Heritage Center
Segment of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma
Wilma Mankiller receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton, January 1998
Mankiller is depicted on a 2022 American Women quarter.Awards
About this person
Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, she lived on her family's allotment in Adair County, Oklahoma, until the age of 11, when her family relocated to San Francisco as part of a federal government program to urbanize Indigenous Americans. After high school, she married a well-to-do Ecuadorian and raised two daughters. Inspired by the social and political movements of the 1960s, Mankiller became involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz and later participated in the land and compensation struggles with the Pit River Tribe. For five years in the early 1970s, she was employed as a social worker, focusing mainly on children's issues.
