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Wilma Mankiller – Leadership Qualities

Biographical Timeline | Leadership Qualities | Healthcare for Indigenous Veterans | References

Compassionate 

Wilma Mankiller can be most defined as being compassionate, towards her people and towards herself. She easily could have been another community member but she preferred to handle the issues her tribe was facing. Being the selfless individual she was, Mankiller’s activism involved leading some campaigns for Head Start that is a program for low-income preschool children whose goal is to provide educational, social and health needs where these families lack access. Mankiller’s concern for the next generation shows her care to ensure others are being given the same education regardless of their background. Her compassion lived through her vision most of all. She founded the community development department for the Cherokee nation and became the director. Mankiller helped establish rural water systems and rehabilitate housing for her tribe. This success of putting forth all her effort for her people was seen by the Cherokee people’s principal chief where he chose her as a running mate in the next election. Soon after she became the principal chief and created revenue for her tribe that was used for health care and job training, as well as Head Start programs. All of her energy was used to aid her people young and old. In essence, if it was not for her compassionate spirit Mankiller embodied, the platform she created would not have prospered and many of the events she evolved would not have flourished the way they did.

Photo of Mankiller educating the youth from KQED

Resilient

Throughout her life, Wilma Mankiller has had to face a number of challenges that has prompted her to become the resilient leader she is known to be. From an early age, her family had to relocate to San Francisco where they struggled financially. As she attended college, she became pregnant and had to resume her studies years after. These unexpected difficulties of juggling between her family and school work revealed early on the strength Mankiller carried as she navigated her path as a young adult. Her resilient energy carried as she settled through her divorce and moved alongside her children back to her tribal land in Oklahoma. It was these life turning points Mankiller heavily learned how to overcome any obstacle. As a single mother, she took on being the tribal planner until she faced another scarring challenge when she was involved in a tragic car accident where she lost her best friend. Mankiller’s spirit continued to fight through surgeries eventually leading to better health. Adapting to sudden life events, Mankiller remained persistent to keep going, she became deputy chief then tribal principal chief after winning two elections. As a leader, Mankiller gained her resilience as she never quit despite all the hardships that attempted to push her back down along the way. 

Photo of a young Mankiller from Dignity Memorial Obituary

”Keeper of the Village”

Wilma Mankiller’s last name from Cherokee history means “keeper of the village”. Essentially meaning a person who watches over the people. Mankiller’s leadership has earned her the qualifications under this name as she noted during her commencement speech at Northern Arizona University. Although the “keeper of the village” is honored as being the one to overlook the community, Mankiller directed her hopes towards the individuals within the community to take a stance together to make change. Her leadership style was not about one person leading the group but for everyone to be involved in public service if reshaping society was desired. Instead of waiting around, she emphasized the importance that making waves was about going forth and doing it yourself. In order to implement these ideas of going after what you wish to see onto her people, Mankiller became the first female executive on the Cherokee board. During times where females lacked representation anywhere. Her goal as she first accepted a job in tribal government was to reassure herself and others that her own community had the ability to defeat their own problems tackling issues head on such as creating programs to increase revenue for her tribe. This was all while she was still in the community developer position prior to her time as deputy and tribal principal chief. Mankiller established the meaning behind her name early on in her career as she made the moves to take initiative directly.

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Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – Leadership Qualities

Biographical Timeline | Leadership Qualities | Colonial Gender Violence | References

Brave

Leanne Simpson has created a wide range of literature and research addressing numerous amounts of issues within Indian country. Her discussions touch on issues that are often overlooked or internalized within Indian country. She pushes the envelope and shows true fearlessness by addressing issues that are further perpetuated within the community by the community. For instance, Simpson addresses the damaging effects of heteropatriarchy within Indigenous communities by “queering resurgence”. Leanne has created dialogue that provides a voice for Native women and two-spirit/queer Indigenous folks. In Queering Resurgence: Taking on Heteropatriarchy in Indigenous Nation Building, she addresses and dissects the the topic of involving more Native women in nation-building. Simpson explains that hearing the statement “we need more women involved in nation-building” sounds like an effort to improve the community on the surface, but this statement invalidates the immense amount of work and leadership roles that Indigenous women have been involved in for centuries. Leanne fiercely addresses issues that other Indigenous leaders do not prioritize or dissect. Many Indigenous leaders focus on the battle with dismantling and decolonizing the damage solely caused by the colonizer but fail to address the toxicity that exists within these communities that are further perpetuated by community members. Leanne bravely critiques the patriarchal tendencies engrained into Native communities in efforts to further decolonize and build relations. She provides a voice for community members that are marginalized within their own communities. In many cases there are situations where colonial patriarchy and community power dynamics can be disguised as traditional and cultural practices. Simpson provides examples such as, the perpetuation of colonial gender roles, pressuring women to wear certain articles of clothing in ceremonies, the exclusion of LGBTQ2 individuals from communities and ceremony, the dominance of male-centered narratives regarding the Indigenous experience, and the lack of recognition for women and LGBTQ2’s voices, experiences, contributions and leadership. Leanne Simpson shows true bravery by fighting for the interrogation of heteropatriarchy to become a part of Native communities decolonizing project. Her speech is radical and defies some extreme traditionalist’s beliefs and practices and forces communities to acknowledge their lack of inclusivity, patriarchal, and heteronormative tendencies that are normalized and engrained into community practices and protocols.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Visionary

Leanne Simpson throughout her life has continued to maintain focus on her vision of reforming the social issues of First Nations. She has strategically put her efforts in areas she deems will result in the greatest aid to her cause. This includes participating in the Idle No More movement and attempting to help gender-based violence and protect indigenous homelands by revisiting Canada’s Indian Act. Simpson also helps to turn her ambitions into reality through other means that may seem unorthodox relative to physically protesting/reforming. Simpson holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and has written numerous novels (Islands of Decolonial Love, Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back, The Gift is in the Making, etc.) that educate the common reader on Indian traditions, customs, and oppression. The philosophy she attempts to spread is contrary to that of “extractivism”, which is the removal of Earth’s natural resources, assimilation of Natives, the removal of Indigenous ideals, and cultural appropriation. Through her protests and novels she attempts a resurgence in Indigenous ideology, intelligence, and community.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Creative

Leanne Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg artist, musician, poet and writer, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work intersects between story and song, bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. Her latest album, f(l)ight, was released in 2016. f(l)ight is a collection of story-songs that effortlessly interweaves Simpson’s complex poetics and stories of the land, spirit, and body. Simpson’s work breaks open the intersections between politics, story and song. Leanne Simpson creates work that is a form of activism and resistance, addressing issues such as discrimination within her community. She created a music video for her song-poem “Leaks” from the album Islands of Decolonial Love. The video is shares the story of a young Anishinaabekwe experiencing racism for the first time, the poem is the voice of the mother realizing that she cannot protect her daughter from such injustices and acts of hate, but she can influence her in healing from these experiences. The video shows visuals of Leanne with her daughter on the land of the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg. The film is about living as an Anishinaabekwe, displaying the powerful connection to the land and the importance of passing that knowledge down to future generations. She states in the poem, “you are not a vessel for white settler shame”, teaching her daughter to take pride in her Indigenous identity and the importance of decolonizing her self-image. The poem and visuals are a notion of resistance, teaching her daughter to find healing through her land relations and cultural practices.

 

 

 

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Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe) – Leadership Qualities

Biographical Timeline | Leadership Qualities | Whanganui Water Rights | References

Winona LaDuke’s success in movement-building can be attributed to her personal mix of leadership qualities. The most critical of these qualities are her vision and ability to innovate, her patience, and community-oriented philosophy. These traits have been specifically highlighted because they are the pillars on which LaDuke’s work has been built.

Vision 

Winona LaDuke is a visionary, taking innovative approaches in her activism. Her career in raising awareness for indigenous issues began in earnest in 1985, and since then she has shown a remarkable ability to adapt and take advantage of changes in society and technology to further her cause. She has made abundant use of media, and her outreach has evolved over time , now spanning an impressive list. She has written several books (including a novel), essays, and articles, as well as appeared on television in documentaries. More recently, she has extended her campaign to the internet, keeping pace as it quickly became popular. In short, she has entered nearly every single form of media in existence. Her highly creative approach to media has led to recognition on several levels.

LaDuke has also been highly innovative as an environmentalist, with her work on renewable energy systems and issues such as climate change. She has used the broader scope of general environmental problems to draw attention to issues of environmental injustice regarding Indigenous communities. LaDuke rarely approaches issues from the “traditional” standpoint; more often, she paves the way for a new type of solution, often larger in scale and proportion than is expected. Using her background in economics, she has advocated for new  energy economic systems based on wind and solar power. By doing so, she hopes to draw both economic and environmental benefit for Native America. On her website, she also supports a crowd-funding initiative for solar energy, claiming that this new, unconventional method could prove to be a more effective means of financing solar energy. This shows a clear trend in LaDuke’s activism of being quick to embrace new and innovative methods to solve old problems. Rather than simply following in the footsteps of other native leaders before her, LaDuke clearly saw a vision of her own and pursued it, resulting in explosive success.

LaDuke with a solar panel as part of her clean energy initiative

Patience

Patience is one of Winona LaDuke’s most powerful qualities, and it is one of the driving forces behind her success. She exhibited patience from the beginning of her career as an activist, but also in her personal life. When she first moved to the White Earth reservation, for example, she was not accepted by the Ojibwe nation that she felt she belonged to. Rather than explosively confront this rejection and start a movement from the get-go, however, she bided her time. LaDuke worked at White Earth as a school principal and slowly got involved in local issues. She used her education in economics to help the reservation’s community, and then slowly transitioned into activism. Though she had been involved in activist groups since her undergraduate education at Harvard University, she worked patiently over the years to gradually establish a movement among her people, starting small and growing larger until groups from all over the nation became involved. As a Native leader, she tackles issues that have spanned centuries and will likely carry on for years. Attempting to rush these kinds of change would likely end in failure. While LaDuke still pursues great change, she takes her time, serving a higher purpose in looking to posterity. 

From LaDuke’s Acceptance Speech for Green Party V.P. Nomination Jun 25, 2000

Concern for her community 

Winona LaDuke’s leadership philosophy is highly community-oriented. Instead of leading from the front, her movements are often based within the community. Her first major ventures into activism came from within the local Ojibwe reservation at White Earth. Rather than just attempt to drive change by challenging an adverse outside environment, she has also chosen to focus on strengthening communities, preparing them for these adverse conditions. For example, to a greater extent than other leaders, LaDuke engages with youth. LaDuke has said, “We make sure the kids are part of everything. In most of America, it seems you don’t matter if you’re not between 25 and 50.” With her focus on youth, LaDuke targets  She frequently sets up and attends events to simply meet and discuss issues with communities all over America.

In the beginning of her career, LaDuke first devoted her energy to changing her personal community from within. Early on, she faced resistance to the White Earth Land Recovery project. “I need to deal with them because it affects other people where I live,” she said, referring to the power structure in her community.

Winona LaDuke engaging with local youth in the community

Winona LaDuke’s first major work as an activist was helping found the Indigenous Women’s Network, a platform that focuses on ensuring Native women have sovereignty over themselves and their environments. It is telling that instead of immediately trying to challenge their white oppressors, LaDuke valued strengthening the Indigenous community as a whole by targeting this deep social issue.