Mankiller grew up with her family at Mankiller Flats. Her father moved the family to San Francisco in 1956 in hopes of a "better life" as promised under the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Indian Relocation Program. By the late 1960s, failed promises led Mankiller to join the activist movement and participate in the occupation of Alcatraz Island and other Indian demonstrations. In hopes of helping her own people, she returned home in 1977 and began a low-level job for the Cherokee Nation.
By 1983, she was elected deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation alongside Ross Swimmer, who was serving his third consecutive term as principal chief. In 1985, Chief Swimmer resigned to take the position as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This allowed Mankiller to become the first female principal chief. She was freely elected in 1987, and re-elected again in 1991 in a landslide victory, collecting 82 percent of the vote. In 1995, she resigned, largely due to health problems.
Mankiller faced many obstacles during her tenure in office. Upon becoming principal chief, the Cherokee Nation was male-dominated. Such a structure contrasted with the traditional Cherokee culture and value-system, which instead emphasized a balance between the two genders. Over the course of her three terms, Mankiller would make great strides to bring back that balance and reinvigorate the Cherokee Nation through community-building projects that practiced gadugi, where men and women work collectively for the common good. Examples of progress include: the founding of the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department, the revival of Sequoyah High School, and a population increase of Cherokee Nation citizens from 55,000 to 156,000. She was also very instrumental in providing financial and technical assistance to members of the tribe so that they may get off welfare and open small businesses, generating Cherokee Nation economic self-sufficiency.
Though she is no longer in office, Mankiller remains probably the most celebrated Cherokee person of the 20th century.
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