Wilma Mankiller discusses role in tribal politics

Tuesday, April 1, 2008  

When she was running for chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in the 1980s, Wilma Mankiller faced critics who said she couldn't lead the tribe because she is a woman.

Mankiller went on to win the election but it wasn't always easy sailing. She recounted a story about one council member who kept interrupting her during meetings.

"Everybody had their own microphone, and during the course of the meeting every time I would try to conduct the meeting this one fellow kept interrupting me and kept saying I wasn't following some obscure rule I'd never heard of," she told students at Baylor University of Texas.

How did Mankiller resolve the situation? "So what I did was between the first meeting and the second meeting I went to the communications department and I asked them to change all the microphones so that I controlled the microphones. And then when he started interrupting me, I just turned off his microphone," she said.

Mankiller served the tribe for 10 years.

Get the Story:
Chief discusses female leaders (The Lariat Online 4/1)