WILMA MANKILLER DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER, LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE MARCH 5, 2010

Mankiller diagnosed with cancer
Slated to make last public appearance March 5

By S.E. Ruckman, Today correspondent


TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Wilma Mankiller, the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, has been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. The 14-county Cherokee jurisdiction reeled from the news after her husband, Charlie Soap, made the announcement March 2.

She is slated to make her last public appearance in Tulsa at the Renaissance Hotel at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 5 for a cancer summit hosted by Cherokee Nation, according to reports.Mankiller, 64, said she decided to issue a statement because she wants her family and friends to know that she has “mentally and spiritually prepared” herself for her latest health crisis.“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. On balance, I have been blessed with an extraordinarily rich and wonderful life, filled with incredible experiences.”

She added that she has been touched by countless people in her life and regrets not being able to deliver the news of her illness personally. She requested that well wishers contact her at wilmapmankiller@yahoo.com.Mankiller’s pancreatic cancer is not the first health challenge she has faced. After surviving a head-on collision in 1979 that killed the other driver in rural Cherokee County, she was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease, myasthenia gravis, in 1980 in which her thymus was removed as the cure.

In 1995, she was diagnosed with lymphoma. She underwent two kidney transplants in 1990 and 1998, after inherting kidney disease from her father, who died of it. In 1999, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate, particularly stage IV, with a prognosis of three to six months, according to medical resources. Chemotherapy is the standard course for this type of terminal cancer.Meanwhile, Cherokee Chief Chad Smith, told hundreds of tribal employees March 2 that he regretted making the announcement but did so in order for her immediate family to be respected.“Please allow them the privacy they deserve, either when they are at work or when they are in the community during this trying time,” Smith said in an employee memo. Members of her family work for Cherokee Nation in various capacities.

Mankiller served as the Cherokee Nation’s principal chief in 1985 after serving two years as the tribe’s deputy chief starting in 1983. She inherited the top position after then principal chief, Ross Swimmer, was appointed to the head of the BIA. She was elected in 1987 then 1991 by Cherokee voters. She opted to step down from political life in 1995.Her terms as principal chief were marked by focusing on education, health care, new school construction, job-training centers and health clinics. A health clinic bearing her name is located in Stilwell, Okla.Her life has been one that has been about taking the twists and turns of life’s roads.

In her 1993 book, “Mankiller: A Chief and Her People,” she recounts a path that included a family migration from Cherokee County in Oklahoma to San Francisco, Calif. in the 1950s as part of the BIA’s Relocation Program.Soon after graduating high school in 1963, she married Hugo Olaya and had two daughters, Gina and Felicia. About two years after her divorce in 1974, she made the decision to return to Oklahoma, where she soon became a community coordinator for the Cherokee Nation.

She later married fellow Cherokee tribal member, Charlie Soap, in 1986. They have made their home in Stilwell, living on her family allotment for the last several years. Mankiller is the grandmother of a grandson and granddaughter.Since leaving political life, Mankiller has served on numerous boards and named for several distinctions, including induction into the Women’s Hall of Fame in New York City in 1994. In 1995, she received a Chubb Fellowship from Yale University.

She was also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-president Bill Clinton in 1998.She is the co-author of a 2004 book, “Every Day is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women,” with Gloria Steinem and Vine DeLoria Jr.

Indian Country Today-March 4, 2010