(Originally Published Wednesday, February 5, 2014 – Blogger: One Daughter’s Point of View)
DAR has long promoted awareness of American Indians and their history. I remember attending my first chapter meeting before I joined and being intrigued by the ‘Indian Minute’ that was part of the chapter meeting.
Indian Minutes for each chapter meeting are provided by the national chairman for the American Indian Committee. The ones provided for this year are from the book Every Day is a Good Day by Wilma Mankiller. I was familiar with the name, but not the woman – so I had to find out more.
Wilma Mankiller was a Cherokee woman who became the first woman elected chief of the Cherokee, the second largest Indian nation in the United States. Her remarkable story is one of passion for the Cherokee and her accomplishments are too many to enumerate here.
Her biography online at the Oklahoma Historical Society notes that
For her contributions in community service and for her leadership roles, she has been inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame (1986) and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame (1994) and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998). At the turn of the twenty-first century, she continued to live on her grandfather’s allotment, known as Mankiller Flats, in Adair County, Oklahoma. Fittingly, Mankiller states in her autobiography, “If I am to be remembered, I want it to be because I am fortunate enough to have become my tribe’s first female chief. But I also want to be remembered for emphasizing the fact that we have indigenous solutions to our problems.
So…without further ado…here’s today’s Indian Minute
A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done, no matter how brave its warriors or strong its weapons. – Cheyenne proverb
Mankiller, Wilma, Everyday is a Good Day, Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, Colorado, 2004, p. 143
A Robynn’s Chirps 