Mankiller served as the Morse Chair, Professor of Law and Politics at the University of Oregon in the fall of 2005. She presented more than 100 lectures and published more than a dozen papers. She was one of a handful of Native American recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Mankiller co-edited A Reader’s Companion to the History of Women in the U.S. (Houghton-Mifflin) and co-authored Mankiller: A Chief and Her People (St. Martin’s Press). Her most recent book, Every Day is a Good Day, was published by Fulcrum Press in the fall of 2004.
“She was a guiding power for the Cherokee people of Oklahoma and a symbol of achievement for women everywhere,” according to the Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Wilma Mankiller accepted a life mission that was heavy with responsibility, but she refused to allow it to weigh down her spirit. She was a great woman who neither thought about how much she deserved admiration nor noticed just how many people she inspired.
Dr. Claire Van Ummersen is vice president for the Center for Effective Leadership at the American Council on Education.
