Sunday, April 24, 2016

Wilma Mankiller


From the very beginning of the interview I felt that she was a very modest individual.  I think this modest persona that I picked up on comes from her personal story and growing up in a poor community and mentioning that poor people have a tendency for solving their own problems.  Growing up in poverty or having a low income has the ability to keep your feet on the ground and having a realization on what it takes to bring yourself out of it.  I love how she defined sovereignty as having control over your own destiny and pointed out that tribal governments existed prior to the formation of US governments.  My interpretation of the Cherokee nation based on her interview was that they were very motivated and passionate about keeping their community alive in the eyes of society, specifically the government.  She told the story about her grandfather that would ride on horseback to other houses and collect money from other members in a mason job in order to gain funds and send a representative to Washington DC to fight for their treaty rights.  She stated that there is a wide array of income levels in the Cherokee Nation, very low income families to relatively wealthy families.  She also stated that their goal is keep a balance between every member and find a common ground between both spectrums of the community. She continues to go on about the absolute trust that they have between members within the community. Trust is an important concept to have within a community.  People feel more comfortable helping others and knowing that the help will be returned when they need it.  People also start to become family more than acquaintances.   

This is what makes a successful community; coming together and uniting in order to grow and have your voice heard.  I definitely got the vibe from her interview that the Cherokee Nation will stand strong when faced with difficult circumstances.

Mankiller, Wilma. "Governance, Leadership, and the Cherokee Nation." Leading Native Nations interview series. Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy, University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. September 29, 2008 https://nnidatabase.org/video/wilma-mankiller-governance-leadership-and-cherokee-nation

4 comments:

  1. Wilma Mankiller was clear that her main focus was not to point out all of the positive things she had done for her Nation but to emphasize that it takes a whole group to make a change. She was 100% correct when she said a successful community is about coming together and uniting. We see this in the American Indian Movement, and we have seen this in the Wounded Knee protest. Using this philosophy people can unite together to make a change.

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  2. The American Indian Movement seems to be at the center of alot of controversy as well.I know this has nothing to do with Mankiller but there appears to have been accusations of murder in the 1970's within the movement when several members were accused of being government informants. Pan Indianism has been the source of many many organizations theres bound to be one or two that wont escape controversy.

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  3. I agree about the controversy in the American Indian movement. And I express more and more what if the Indians did what they did fur trade etc but had the necessary resources I think our world would be a better place.

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  4. I agree that Mrs. Mankiller's humble roots helped keep her viewpoint realistic for the average person. I also think that the makes a fantastic point that a movement and improvements need to occur on the grassroots level as well as the high political level in order to be affective. If a law is passed without it being communicated to the average citizen, then it is very abstract. Similarly I think it very important for American Indian movement to reach average American citizens, and to be taken outside academic and political realms.

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