Mankiller's Early Political Career
When Wilma Mankiller returned home to Oklahoma in the summer of 1977, she gradually came to acquire the feeling of community and history that she had been missing in California. She immediately set about looking for work, and in October of the same year, Mankiller went to work for the Cherokee Nation as an economic stimulus coordinator. This job was composed mainly with that task of getting as many native people as possible trained at a university. However, with the knowledge of writing grant proposals that she had gotten from her involvement with the Pit River people, Mankiller was soon appointed to the position of program development specialist. In this job, Mankiller was able to work closely with self-helf projects and program developments, issues very crucial to her. After two years at that post, Mankiller was given the chance to futher her policies when she was named director of the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department in 1981. (It was with this development that Wilma Mankiller acheived her great success with the Bell Community Revitalization Project - To learn about this self-renewal project, click here.)
As Deputy Chief
In 1983, after being deserted by his political supporters (largely because of his health problems), Principal Chief Swimmer remembered all the work that Wilma Mankiller had done on behalf of the tribe and asked her to run as his deputy chief in the upcoming election. Mankiller was unsure because she did not want to deal with all the bureaucracy. Her initial answer to his request was a refusal, but soon she recanted and thought of all the influence that she could have in bringing about change and lessening poverty. In 1983, Mankiller and Swimmer started campaigning for that year's election. Mankiller thought that many people would oppose her due to her atypical ideas on "grass-roots democracy and her fairly extensive activist background." As she would soon find out, her fears were wrong. Wilma Mankiller recounts that no one challenged her on any of her politics or ideals, but instead she was challenged "mostly because of one fact - I am female." Mankiller had to endure criticism about her lack of political experience (her detractors seemed to ignore her great experience as a community organizer), sexism, hate mail, and even several death threats. To show her fellow tribespeople what she stood for, Mankiller campaigned door to door, attended every event and rally, and tried to reach out to her base of support - the rural, poor families. Finally, on election day, all of her hard work campaigning paid off. She had come from what many saw as an impossibe campaign to tie for the win. She met her opponent again in a July runoff, defeated her, and was named as the first woman deputy chief in Cherokee history. The obstacles that had been overcome throughout her campaign were not the last difficulties for Deputy Chief Mankiller. She now had to deal with the newly-elected, fifteen-member tribal council that, for the most part, did not support her and also with the very different, conservative politics of Chief Ross Swimmer. However, despite their differences, Mankiller found a partner in Chief Ross Swimmer because of their deep commitment to the rebuilding and revitalizating of rural communities. Her short-lived peaceful adjustment with both chief and council would end in 1985, when Ross Swimmer was asked to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. Mankiller, as deputy chief, was the unpopular and automatic replacement in the case of a resigning chief. When she learned about Swimmer's resignation, Mankiller began to prepare herself mentally for the onslaught that she expected to come; surprisingly, it did not. Nevertheless, this was not due as much to the fact that her people had accepted her, but that many believed that they could stick it out for two years and then kick Mankiller out in the next election.
Wilma Mankiller becomes Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Mankiller ruled for two years as Principal Chief without a mandate from her people. She tried to carry out some of her priorities, but she always felt restricted to make as few changes as possible from Swimmer's tenure. As she stated in her inaugural speech, she would "stay on the same path." In 1987, after finishing up the remaining years of Swimmer's term, Mankiller decided to run in her own right. Once again, Mankiller went around to the communities and talked with as many people as possible, trying to quell the rumors of her inefficiency and incapability in running the tribe. Like the previous election, she came from behind to beat all of her opponents but, first, she had to meet her closest rival in a July runoff (neither of them had received more than 50 percent of the votes, as is needed). When all of the ballots were counted, Wilma Mankiller was declared the winner and was named as the first female chief of a major Native American tribe in history. Moreover, Mankiller was elected with the direct support of her people. This approval enabled her to carry out her goals for the Cherokee Nation. Her policies centered on self-government and "fulfilling as many of my people's needs as possible without the bureaucratic delays of the past." She helped bring about many educational and employment opportunities to help her people "improve their individual lives on their own. in 1991, she decided to run again for principal chief so that she could continue her work, especially to "concentrate on health and housing issues." Wilma Mankiller won with an astonishing 82.7 percent of the vote. Mankiller was happy with the progress her tribe had made, but she devoted her second term to many issues, including the development of a "new education plan, Cherokee language and literacy programs, a magnet school out of Sequoyah High School, a comprehensive health-care system, and an extensive array of services for children and youths." The Institute for Cherokee Literacy is very important to her. This Institute helps to ensure the promotion of the Cherokee Nation's language and culture by teaching its students to read and write in Cherokee. In exchange, the students return to their communities and pass on what they have learned. In addition, Mankiller also focused on her tribe's concerns with "settlement of old land claims, taxation, housing initiatives, and economic development." Throughout her political career, Mankiller has emphasized the "necessity of retaining Cherokee traditions and also of succeeding in the modern world. The Cherokee Nation, with its annual budget of $75 million and approximately 1,000 tribal governmental employees, is a daunting political system to run. Silencing any remaining opposition, Wilma Mankiller handled her terms as its chief with honor and skill, helping to provide much-needed services to all of her people. (Another measure of her success is the increase in tribal membership - from 67,000 to more than 140,000 - that is largely credited to her.) Although she decided not to run again in 1995 due to poor health, Wilma Mankiller remains active in her work for her people and serves as a role model, demonstrating how anyone can overcome adversity to lead productive lives.
