Mankiller, Wilma Pearl, 1945-2010

Wilma Pearl Mankiller was born November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and became the first woman chief of a Native American tribe in modern history. She served as Deputy and Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, and throughout her career spoke out for the rights of Native Americans. An ardent activist and feminist, Mankiller was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame (1986), the International Women's Forum Hall of Fame (1992), the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993), and has received the Distinguished Leadership Award of the Harvard Foundation. In addition, she was chosen as one of the Fifty Great Americans by Who's Who. She is the author of Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, and co-editor of The Reader's Companion to the History of Women in the United States. She passed away in 2010 at age 64 from pancreatic cancer.