Wilma Mankiller - First woman chief of the Cherokee Nation died this week

Wilma Mankiller, the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation died after battling pancreatic cancer on Tuesday April 6th. She was 64 years old. Here is more on her life and work from Indian Country Today:

..."Thousands of newspaper articles, Internet messages, and other tributes and remembrances have already surfaced in honor of the first woman elected to lead the Cherokee Nation, who passed away at age 64 on April 6, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The outpouring of adulation, which has included praise-filled statements from President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton – who awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 – and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is not surprising to those who knew her best.

“She had the uncanny ability to make people in Native America and beyond feel like she was talking right to them,” said Tom Holm, a longtime friend and noted Native American scholar." ...(Cont.)...