1985 | REVITALIZING NATIVE COMMUNITIES
WILMA MANKILLER
BY ADRIENNE KEENE
in 1985, Wilma mankiller paved The Way for female
leadership in America when she became the first woman to
be Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, the largest tribe
in the U.S., a role she held for a decade, ushering in an era of
prosperity, cultural revitalization and self-governance for
Cherokee people.
Mankiller was born in 1945 in Tahlequah, Okla., on rural
family land. In the 1950s, federal relocation programs that
attempted assimilation by moving Native people into cities
sent her family to San Francisco. They lived in urban poverty
and faced discrimination and racism, but were also surrounded
by a strong, political and diverse indigenous community,
which formed a foundation for Mankiller’s feminism and belief
in the power of Native communities to support and govern
themselves.
In 1977, she moved back to Oklahoma with her children and
lived without running water or electricity on her family land.
Using her knowledge of Native sovereignty, political history and
federal Indian law, Mankiller worked for the tribe, embodying the
Cherokee concept of gadugi— collective community work toward
a common goal.
When Ross Swimmer sought a
running mate in the 1983 Chero-
kee Nation election, he selected
Mankiller despite her relatively re-
cent return to the Oklahoma com-
munity. They overcame hesitancy
and sexism from voters, and won.
In 1985, Swimmer was tapped for
a role in the federal government
and Mankiller took over as Princi-
pal Chief. Her policies were pro-
gressive; she saw the interconnect-
edness of economic growth and
social programs, putting revenue
from casinos and other tribal eco-
nomic ventures back into health clinics, job training and other
self- determination initiatives. Mankiller won two more terms
as Principal Chief before deciding not to run for re-election in
1995 because of poor health. During her time as chief, tribal
enrollment grew, infant mortality dropped and employment
rates doubled.
Mankiller died in 2010, leaving a legacy of cultural pride.
“I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore
faith in ourselves,” she once said. Indeed, her policies on health
care, education and self-governance for the Cherokee Nation pro-
vided a model that would be followed by other tribal nations,
and the U.S.
Keene is an assistant professor of American studies and
ethnic studies at Brown University, and author of the blog
Native Appropriations
1986 PERSON OF THE YEAR
Corazon Aquino
Democracy’s defender
There was a mythic quality to Corazon
Aquino’s ascent. Well-born and a
devout Catholic, she was a supportive
wife to the Philippines’ most prominent
critic of kleptocratic dictator Ferdinand
Marcos, and seemingly harbored no
political ambitions until her husband’s
murder in 1983. She took over as
leader of the opposition and won the
presidency in 1986 after ordinary
people gathered to protect soldiers
who refused to stuff ballot boxes.
TIME named her Woman of the
Year. Filipinos went with “Mother of
Democracy.”
That democracy has endured on
the archipelago. So have its power
structures: a tradition of elite rule
helped her son Benigno Aquino III to
a widely admired term as President.
And his coarse, swaggering successor,
Rodrigo Duterte, daily demonstrates
both the machismo Corazon Aquino
overcame, and the value of the
principled civility she modeled.
ÑKarl Vick1980sMANKILLER: AP; AQUINO: VAL RODRIGUEZ—AP^75