Wilma Mankiller US quarter released, 27 years after her historic leadership of Cherokee Nation

The first quarters featuring Wilma Mankiller went into circulation Monday in Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation capital city where she was born and where she served as her nation’s first female principal chief.

Mankiller is credited with improving health, educational and economic outcomes across the Cherokee Nation during her decade in office from 1985 to 1995. Her leadership set the standard for every Cherokee chief to follow, current Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said.

Hoskin and others spoke about Mankiller’s legacy at a ceremony to celebrate the new coins, which show Mankiller wrapped in a shawl with the wind at her back. Beside her is the seven-pointed star from the Cherokee Nation seal. Her name and title are inscribed on each coin, along with the “Cherokee Nation” written in Cherokee syllabary.

Hoskin and other speakers noted how the new quarter is a lasting reminder of Mankiller’s accomplishments — and a new way to share her life’s work with younger generations. Mankiller died in 2010 at the age of 64.

“Chief Wilma Mankiller keeps changing the world every time a little girl sees Wilma’s face, reads Wilma’s amazing story and realizes that she can do it, too,” Hoskin said.

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The coin is the third quarter released as part of a four-year series spotlighting women. Writer Maya Angelou and astronaut Sally Ride also have been featured. Osage prima ballerina Maria Tallchief will appear on quarters released next year.

“The sometimes under-recognized or under-appreciated accomplishments achieved by these women are a model of perseverance through adversity, especially in the case of the Cherokee, from adversity to obvious prosperity,” said T.V. Johnson, who represented the U.S. Mint at the ceremony.

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Mankiller’s widower, two daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and lone surviving sibling all attended the event. Daughter Felicia Olaya shared an excerpt from her mother’s final speech as principal chief, “I did what I could.”

Mankiller was raised in northeast Oklahoma on her family’s allotment until the age of 11, when her family moved to San Francisco under a federal program that moved Native Americans away from reservations to urban areas. She returned to the Cherokee Nation as an adult and began work as a community organizer.

She was elected deputy chief in 1983 and took over as principal chief in 1985 after Chief Ross Swimmer left to become U.S. assistant secretary for Indian affairs. During Monday’s ceremony, Swimmer described Mankiller’s leadership as transformational.

“Everything that Wilma Mankiller did was intentional, and she followed her road map of how we build the Cherokee Nation, how we build the people and how we work in community,” Swimmer said. “Health care, education, businesses — these are the kinds of things that she was able to do.”

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Mankiller was awarded the highest U.S. civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1998.

She led by elevating others and inspiring people to do better, said her longtime friend, activist Gloria Steinem. Mankiller believed deeply in advancing tribal sovereignty and women’s reproductive rights, Steinem said.

“So in the face of adverse events like the ones we are now seeing in Texas and even here (in Oklahoma), I believe you all know that Wilma would once again be on the side of reproductive freedom,” said Steinem, drawing applause. “This is the historic and the true Wilma, the one who will continue to inspire the world from her now storied and permanent place on a coin that will circulate among us every day and will give each of us a reason to tell her story.”

Molly Young covers Indigenous affairs for the USA Today Network's Sunbelt Region. Reach her at mollyyoung@gannett.com or 405-347-3534.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New US quarter honors former Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller