Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Mankiller was the first woman ever to serve as chief of the Cherokee nation. She assumed that post in December of 1985, when the tribe's former chief, Ross Swimmer, left to become assistant secretary of the interior for Indian affairs. As deputy principal chief under Swimmer, Mankiller automatically assumed tribal leadership following Swimmer's departure. With 67,000 members, the Cherokees was the second largest Native American tribe at the time of her appointment to chief. Of the approximately five hundred tribes in the United States, less than fifty are headed by women, and none of the other female-led tribes as large as the Cherokee tribe. As chief, Mankiller presided over 45,000 acres of Cherokee land in Oklahoma, the state that...