Wilma Mankiller. Wow!

I fully appreciate Native Nation's Institute's Ian Record for his insightful questions in his interview with the late Wilma Mankiller, former Chief of the Cherokee nation.  Record's inquisitiveness opens Mankiller to share her experience growing up Cherokee away from the reservation, her participation in the American Indian Movement, and her leadership as Chief of the nation.  I like hearing her talk about the class disparity and therefore different needs within the Cherokee nation, and noting that there is no clear answer about how to address these disparities.  I wonder if her politics veer more towards socialism or capitalism, or a combination of the two.  Or maybe she has a way of addressing classism that I'm not familiar with.  I would like to learn more of her leadership.  In this interview it is clear that her primary concern is for the people at the ground level, those with the least amount of resources.
Mankiller notes the resiliency of her people, how we made it through land disposession and the Trail of Tears and began forming educational, governmental, and reporting organizations in our new land right away.  She notes how we were able to find our strength again despite Dawes' Act and land allotment tragedies, and how we are reviving ourselves today as we rely on ourselves for good ideas.  Mankiller communicates that trusting our Cherokee community, trusting ourselves to articulate our own needs and solutions, trusting that everyone has a role to play, and trusting the strength in our interdependence are key to hope and rev
I am inspired to hear her reminder that having all the great ideas in the world won't help the people struggling at the ground level within the community.  The ideas for change have to come from inside the communities, at the grassroots level, for the change to really empower people.  This, she says, is what she means when she talks about a revived nation...a nation that is supporting itself with its own ideas.  The experts of how to heal a system are the ones within the system, though funding and support for these ideas can come from outside.  Part of this Cherokee nation revival is based on the interdependence the poor have with one another; to be poor and to survive we have to help one another. 
I also am inspired by her acknowledging that leaders need to be connected to their people, to listen to their people and represent them well in delegations.  Leadership isn't about doing whatever a leader wants, but about serving the people.  This kind of leadership helps rebuild and revitalize the nation from within.   
She says:
"Indian Country is a very small place and within a tribe it’s even smaller, so that you can't mistreat women, for example, and then be in a leadership position of leading women. So I think that people expect their leaders to conduct themselves in a certain way and it’s important to do that. I had the privilege of working with Peterson Zah, President of the Navajo Nation, and he is just a great example of a family man, a grandfather, someone who always conducted himself with just great dignity and great respect and I think that that’s important too, to remember when you’re in leadership its not about you, you represent people and always keep the faces of those people in your head when you go someplace, you’re representing them and when you speak, you’re speaking for them. I think that’s important as well." ~Wilma Mankiller
I like this photo of her as a little girl because it helps me remember we need to nurture our little ones, all of them, as they will be leading us with the love and wisdom we share with them.  Wado to Mankiller's family and community for pouring all they did into her, to help her become who she was for her people. 

https://nnidatabase.org/video/wilma-mankiller-governance-leadership-and-cherokee-nation