Quotes from Wilma Mankiller

An Indian is an Indian regardless of the degree of Indian blood or which little government card they do or do not possess.

Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it - and gets through it quicker. Whenever I'm confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo.

I don't think anybody anywhere can talk about the future of their people or of an organization without talking about education. Whoever controls the education of our children controls our future.

We must trust our own thinking. Trust where we're going. And get the job done.

The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.

An Indian is an Indian regardless of the degree of Indian blood or which little government card they do or do not possess.

One of the things my parents taught me, and I'll always be grateful as a gift, is to not ever let anybody else define me; that for me to define myself . . . and I think that helped me a lot in assuming a leadership position.

The happiest people I've ever met, regardless of their profession, their social standing, or their economic status, are people that are fully engaged in the world around them. The most fulfilled people are the ones who get up every morning and stand for something larger than themselves. They are the people who care about others, who will extend a helping hand to someone in need or will speak up about an injustice when they see it.

I learned a long time ago that I can't control the challenges the creator sends my way, but I can control the way I think about them and deal with them

In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.

It is the women who are responsible for bringing along the next generation to carry the culture forward.

Women can help turn the world right side up. We bring a more collaborative approach to government. And if we do not participate, then decisions will be made without us.

During the long healing process, I fell back on my Cherokee ways and adopted what our elders call "a Cherokee approach" to life. They say it is "being of good mind." That means one has to think positively, to take what is handed out and turn it into a better path.

Women can help turn the world right side up. We bring a more collaborative approach to government. And if we do not participate, then decisions will be made without us. Wilma Mankiller, Denver, September 1984

In our tribal stories, we have heard of a Woman's Council, which was headed by a very powerful woman, perhaps the Ghigau . This oral history is frequently discredited by Western historians as "merely myth." I have always found their repudiation fascinating. An entire body of knowledge can be dismissed because it was not written, while material written by obviously biased men is readily accepted as reality.

Europeans brought with them the view that men were the absolute heads of households, and women were to be submissive to them. It was then that the role of women in Cherokee society began to decline. One of the new values European brought to the Cherokees was a lack of balance and harmony between men and women. It was what we today call sexism.

Despite everything, they tend to view economic poverty as a barrier and a challenge, not a state of being.

Individually and collectively, Cherokee people possess an extraordinary ability to face down adversity and continue moving forward.

Every single person has leadership ability. Some step up and take them. Some don't. My answer was to step up and lead.

America would be a better place if leaders would do more long-term thinking.

Take care how you place your moccasins upon the Earth, step with care, for the faces of the future generations are looking up from the Earth waiting their turn for life.

We must trust our own thinking. Trust where we're going. And get the job done.

Growth is a painful process.

I've run into more discrimination as a woman than as an Indian.