THE RETURN OF THE EYE

By: Laila Schwin and Valery Warner

December 2, 2021

Wilma Mankiller was the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and was known for her work as a social activist for Indigenous people’s rights and being a community developer for her tribe. She was also a part of the temporary Indigenous occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1964. 

Mankiller was born on November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. Her given name at birth was A-ji-luhsgi, meaning “Flower”. She grew up in a situation of extreme poverty along with her ten siblings, not even having access to plumbing or electricity in their home. Her family hunted, fished, and farmed to support their needs, ultimately to make a  profit selling some of their crops. 

She spent her earlier years indifferent to schooling and often running away from home to avoid it. However, she did manage to graduate high school in 1963. Later that summer, she began dating an Ecuadorian college student named Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi. They got married shortly after on November 13, 1963. Ten months later, the two had their first child, Felicia. The couple had their second child, Gina, in 1966. 

Mankiller became restless being a stay-at-home mother for her children, so she enrolled herself at Skyline Junior College. For the first time in her life, she enjoyed school. In 1972, she transferred to San Francisco State University and began to focus her studies on social welfare. 

She became involved in social activism around this time. Mankiller witnessed the beginnings of the reoccupation of Alcatraz and became involved with the civil rights causes surrounding it. She would go on to visit those occupying the island to provide them with supplies and funding, although she was not directly part of the occupation. 

She also became interested in the legal aspects of activism and began studying to help various tribes with their legal troubles for reclaiming their taken land. In 1976, Mankiller moved back to Oklahoma with her two daughters and enrolled at Flaming Rainbow University in Stilwell, Oklahoma. She received her Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences there with a focus on Indian Affairs. She then enrolled in The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas, for further study.

In 1983, Mankiller became the running mate of Ross Swimmer on his third bid as Principal Chief of the Cherokee tribe. Despite a large amount of misogyny and death threats related to her political bid, Mankiller was elected Deputy Chief. When her term ended in 1985, Mankiller became the Principal Chief of the Cherokee nation when Ross Swimmer resigned. She was sworn in on December 5, 1985, as the first woman to serve as the Principal Chief. While she was not respected politically because she was a woman, she used the press to her advantage to share her political agenda. She was well-liked by the press and was awarded the honor of American Indian Woman of the Year by the Oklahoma Federation of Indian Women. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame. 

Along with her growing popularity, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from The University of New England. She also received a citation for leadership from Harvard University. 

In 1986, despite the political implications, Mankiller married Charlie Soap, another Cherokee politician. He resigned following their marriage and the general public outcry related to it. Her popularity as a politician fell greatly due to this and even more so when she was hospitalized for kidney disease. Many believed her to be unfit for the role and not healthy enough to lead them. Despite all of this, she won the election and the run-off election and became elected Principal Chief in 1987.

Mankiller worked endlessly to support the economy of the tribe and to keep them away from gambling, crime, and drinking. She also rejected offers to use their land for nuclear waste storage to prevent any negative environmental impacts to the Cherokee land. She supported a multitude of financial ventures within the tribe and continued them through her next term until 1995 while fighting for land sovereignty and preventing the government from taking and not compensating tribes for minerals and fuels. 

Mankiller went back to social activism at the end of her political career to share her story and information about sovereignty, women’s rights, and to raise awareness for cancer. Her achievements were near endless, and she spent her whole life devoting herself to as many causes as she could. In 1998, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her social activism. 

Wilma Mankiller died on April 6, 2010, of pancreatic cancer, leaving behind a legacy of unquestionable importance and solidifying her place in the history of the Cherokee tribe. 

Through her hard work building communities and leading her tribe, Mankiller left a permanent mark on both her state and the nation. She was an inspiration to both Native and non-Native Americans and a role model for women and girls. Her name will forever be honored, and her legacy will continue to live throughout her tribe and throughout history.

 {Information was retrieved from: Wikipedia, Biography.com, and Womenshistory.org.}

By: Laila Schwin and Valery Warner

November 18, 2021

Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Indigenous woman to earn and receive a medical degree. Throughout her life, she was known for encouraging public health, discouraging drinking within the Omaha tribe, and working to prevent and treat tuberculosis. She also advocated for the protection and allotment of land to the Omaha tribe and proper compensation for the land. 

Picotte was born on June 17, 1865, into the Omaha tribe, the daughter of the Chief-of-the tribe Joseph LaFlesche (Iron Eye). Her family came from a mix of different tribal backgrounds with her father being part Ponca and her mother being Omaha, Otoe, and Iowa. They lived on an Omaha reservation in eastern Nebraska. 

From a young age, Picotte was inspired to do medical work and to be a physician after witnessing another Indigenous person being refused life-saving medical attention from a white doctor. This ultimately led to the woman’s death, which spurred Picotte to become a doctor for her tribe.

Picotte started out attending a mission school on the Omaha reservation where she lived. The school was meant to teach the children how to assimilate into a white, European American society and to encourage them to give up their Indigenous languages, culture, and religions. She would later go on to study for two years at the Elizabeth Institute in Elizabeth, New Jersey. 

In 1882, she returned to the Omaha reservation and taught at a school there before leaving again to study at the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. She remained there for two years from 1884 to 1886. She graduated as salutatorian and then went on to apply to medical school shortly after. 

She received admission at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania but was not able to afford tuition. She then campaigned to the Connecticut Indian Association to convince them to pay for her medical schooling. She proved that her mission was within the Victorian values that the group wanted to promote, so they paid for the majority of her schooling. 

She was valedictorian and graduated at the top of her class on March 14, 1889, following her three years of intense study.  In those years, she studied chemistry, anatomy, physiology, histology, pharmaceutical science, obstetrics, and general medicine.

Picotte began her medical practice in 1889, taking on her first job as a physician at the government boarding school. She was responsible for teaching the children about hygiene and staying healthy. While she was not obligated to take care of the members in her community, Picotte found herself caring for many members of the Omaha tribe as well as for the children of the school. She became widely-trusted for her medical knowledge.

Picotte also wanted to educate her community about preventive medicine and other public health issues like temperance. The Omaha reservation struggled with alcohol abuse. Picotte, as a reservation physician and a prominent member of the community, was well-aware of the damage that these practices caused. She went as far as supporting coercion and punishment to dissuade individuals from alcohol consumption within the Omaha community. Picotte continued to fight against alcohol for the rest of her life. 

The rest of Picotte’s medical career revolved around public health issues in the wider community, including school hygiene, food sanitation, and efforts to combat the spread of tuberculosis. In 1907, she served on the Thurston County health board along with serving as the chair of the state health committee of the Nebraska Federation of Women’s Clubs. All of this was in an effort to educate people about public health issues, believing that the key to fighting the disease was education.

For several years, she traveled around the reservation caring for patients until December of 1892 when she became ill and was forced to be bedridden for several weeks. Shortly after, she resigned in 1893 to take care of her dying mother. This led to a break in her medical career. During that break, in 1894, she married Henry Picotte, a member of the Sioux tribe. They had two sons together, Caryl and Pierre. After the birth of her children, Picotte returned to her medical practice. 

After a slew of legal battles following her husband’s death, Picotte began helping other members of her tribe to receive compensation for the land that they owned. She had struggled in selling her children’s land inheritance, so she taught others how to sell their land in the same way. She would go on to handle many inheritance issues within the community and campaign against the scams that businessmen would use to steal inheritance land without proper compensation to the members of the Omaha tribe. 

Picotte suffered from chronic illnesses throughout her life in various forms. Ultimately, her health conditions did not hold her back, although they did cause her to go deaf partway through her life. She eventually died on September 18, 1915, after suffering from bone cancer. Despite her death, her legacy has been greatly-honored throughout the years for her medical contributions. 

Picotte’s legacy will continue to live on along with her contributions to today’s medical field in terms of public health and disease education. Her achievement of being the first Indigenous woman to become a doctor was an inspiration to many within her tribe and will continue to be proof of what someone can do despite their circumstances.

{Information was retrieved from Changing the Face of Medicine, History.com, and Wikipedia.}