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Former Cherokee Chief to Speak for MLK Week A renowned advocate for minority rights and women’s issues, Wilma Mankiller, former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, will speak at UCSF as part of Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Week.
She will be introduced by renowned UCSF neurosurgeon Charles Wilson, who is part Cherokee. The first woman principal chief and the first woman deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation, the second largest tribe in the United States, Mankiller was born and raised until the age of 10 in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Her family then moved to California as part of a government relocation program. Mankiller remained in the Bay Area, attending Skyline Junior College in San Bruno then San Francisco State College, until her return to Oklahoma in 1976. Mankiller has overcome not only the poverty and dislocation of her youth but also physical ailments that have haunted her as an adult. In 1979 she was seriously injured in a car accident, and was shortly thereafter afflicted with myasthenia gravis, a chronic neuromuscular disease that causes varying degrees of weakness in the voluntary muscles of the body. Due to genetic kidney disease, she had a kidney transplant in 1990. These obstacles have not stopped Mankiller from becoming a civil rights leader, even after her term as principal chief ended in 1995. She is a strong advocate of tribal self-sufficiency and works with governmental agencies on American Indian issues. Citing the student occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969 as her “political awakening,” Mankiller’s introduction to politics as a profession came gradually. In 1983 Mankiller became deputy chief, under newly-elected principal chief Ross Swimmer, of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. When Swimmer was nominated to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., Mankiller assumed his duties, as dictated by Cherokee law. In an historic election in 1987, she ran for the post and won, becoming the first woman to be elected to head a major Native American tribe. Known for her witty and captivating storytelling, Mankiller’s talk will explore the connections between race and gender that inspire people to work together for social justice. By Paula Murphy 1st appeared 1/8/98 |
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One of many events planned for the week of
January 20-23 honoring Dr. King (