A recent recipient of the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, Wilma Mankiller blended equal parts humility, humor and honesty to captivate her large Cole Hall audience yesterday. The first woman to become chief of a major Native American tribe, Mankiller talked about her years living in San Francisco, the road to becoming a leader, and the dangers of stereotyping people and cultures.

Her long-awaited visit -- she was originally scheduled to visit the campus in January to give the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration keynote address but was forced to cancel because of illness -- began with tribal drumming and ended with Supervisor Amos Brown proclaiming it "Wilma Mankiller Day" in San Francisco.

Now cancer-free and awaiting a kidney transplant, Mankiller began her talk discussing "how a young woman who lived in Hunters Point" became chief of the Cherokee Nation. She said that she had little self-confidence and low self-esteem but was encouraged by others to go to college, speak her mind and run for office.

Wilma Mankiller, her husband Charlie, co-founder of the UCSF MLK Commemoration Week Barbara Wilson Thompson, and Supervisor Amos Brown.

When she was 10, her family moved from Oklahoma to San Francisco as part of a government relocation program -- a program that she sees as the government's attempt to tear apart rural, Native American communities. Her father's generation was taught that "they had to leave behind their sense of being Cherokee to be successful in the world," she said. "In the late 60s and early 70s people began to reject that notion."

Mankiller said that living in the Bay Area during that time period changed her profoundly, and that the civil rights movement, in particular the Black Panthers and the Native American occupation of Alcatraz, taught her about self-sufficiency.

"To see people stand up and say we don't have to take this, we can take things into our own hands, that had a tremendous impact on me," Mankiller said. "Tribal people and poor people in general have a better capacity to solve their own problems than given credit for."

Mankiller moved back to Oklahoma in 1976 and in 1982 was elected deputy chief of the Cherokee tribe. Although she made history by becoming the first woman to be elected principal chief, she said that women have traditionally played leadership roles in Native American culture. "My election was a step back into tribal tradition and also a step forward for tribal women," Mankiller said.

Growing up in Hunters Point, Mankiller learned that the stereotypes she heard about black people, who were the overwhelming majority in her neighborhood, were wrong. She has fought stereotypes ever since, often by example and with a great sense of humor.

"People are always enormously disappointed when they meet me because I'm not handing out crystals or am not laden with Native American jewelry," Mankiller said. "I hope my appearance here today helps you erase any stereotypes you have about what a chief looks like."

by Paula Murphy

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Former Cherokee Chief to Speak for MLK Week

1st appeared 5/5/98

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