RIP Chief Wilma Mankiller ....

I did not know Chief Mankiller personally, but she has touched my soul. I listened to an interview with her on NPR's Fresh Air program and I had to learn more. Chief Mankiller was the first female Cherokee Chief. The following is a link to a recent news article about her life and death from cancer:

www.newson6.com/Global/s
tory.asp?S=12263808


The following are quotes from Chief Mankiller that I wanted to share and remember. Truly words of wisdom ...

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“Optimistic, hopeful people view barriers and obstacles as problems to be solved and not as the reason to give up or turn back,” she said. “Positive people never, ever give up.”

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“The happiest people I’ve ever met, regardless of their profession, their social standing, or their economic status, are people that are fully engaged in the world around them. The most fulfilled people are those who get up every morning and stand for something larger than themselves. They are people who care about others, people who will extend a helping hand to someone in need or will speak up about an injustice when they see it,” Wilma said.

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In a 1993 interview on Fresh Air, Mankiller described how a 1979 car accident that nearly killed her completely changed the way she viewed her own life. She says that accident helped her adopt the Cherokee approach to life.

"I think the Cherokee approach to life is being able to continually move forward with kind of a good mind and not focus on the negative things in your life and the negative things you see around you, but focus on the positive things and try to look at the larger picture and keep moving forward," Mankiller explained. "[It] also taught me to look at the larger things in life rather than focusing on small things, and it's also awfully, awfully hard to rattle me after having faced my own mortality ... so the things I learned from those experiences actually enabled me to lead. Without those experiences, I don't think I would have been able to lead. I think I would have gotten caught up in a lot of nonsensical things."

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In an e-mail statement in early March, Mankiller wrote,

"…I am mentally and spiritually prepared for this journey; a journey that all human beings will take at one time or another. I learned a long time ago that I can't control the challenges the Creator sends my way but I can control the way I think about them and deal with them. On balance, I have been blessed with an extraordinarily rich and wonderful life, filled with incredible experiences…"

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www.npr.org/templates/st
ory/story.php?storyId=1256
68640

www.ktul.com/news/storie
s/0410/722946.html