Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Mankiller is the first female deputy chief of any Native American tribe in history. She is a very well-known and well liked leader in the Native culture and spreads a lot of knowledge to many people in the United States. This video she spoke in is from her speech at Sonoma State University.  She spoke about much of the culture, government aspects, and education of the Native Americans throughout history to today. What really stuck out to me was the explanation of important of women in the Native culture. Women were very important and served many leading roles in the Native American culture, unlike the European culture. For example, in the Navajo tribes women controlled every aspect of their economy and in the Cherokee tribes they were the ones that controlled what actions got punished or pardoned, made sure the importance of the clan was kept up and also went to war with the men. Another aspect that stuck out to me was the importance between governments. When the US was first formed they made treaties and agreements to work with tribal governments and allow certain laws to be made for them. Government to government relations are important because they control the relationship between not just laws but economy also with the “two worlds”.  

Mankiller talked about education today for kids. She stated that much of the Native culture is not taught in schools. Most of the information about them is stereotypical and just about the Westerners taking them over. She said that we are taught about the “New World” that was discovered by Columbus when really the natives were on the land for hundreds of years already. I agree and can relate to her because I really learned the minimum about the native cultures and their history when I was in school. This class is the reason I now know what really has gone on.

This video was very important to this class because it spoke about all aspects we have already learned, but from an actual Native’s point of view.  It helps us connect all the pieces together that we have learned in each module. We are able to share what we have learned and learn from others with this video and blog which is probably the best way to learn.