It could be hard to decide which of Wilma Mankiller’s accomplishments is the most outstanding. Was it when she became the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation? Was it years earlier when as an adult she returned to San Francisco (a city in which she felt a foreigner as a child when her family relocated there from her Cherokee homelands) and participated in Native activism for the first time? One might say it was when she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. Or perhaps when she finished college and began work in Cherokee rural communities, listening to the people there, understanding that they themselves would know what was most needed to improve their lives. In Wilma’s Way Home: The Life of Wilma Mankiller by Doreen Rappaport, readers will experience the power of Mankiller’s belief in the Cherokee concept of Gadugi with which she was raised in her Oklahoma childhood—that of helping one another. Details of Wilma’s life are woven together with this common thread; she had her own setbacks with illness and accident yet consistently reached out to those around her. She engaged communities in determining their own destinies and applied her energy to finding supportive resources. Mankiller was both a Cherokee leader and a woman leader, providing guideposts of persistence, positive action and problem-solving all along her life path. In this picture book biography, illustrations by Choctaw artist Linda Kukuk bring episodes in Wilma’s life to readers with engaging immediacy. Endnotes by the author and illustrator and a timeline of important events complete this informative and inspiring book. Ages 4-9. Disney / Hyperion, New York NY, 2019.
For further exploration:
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/wilma-mankiller
