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Friends describe me as someone who likes to sing and dance along the edge of the roof. I try to encourage young women to be willing to take risks, to stand up for the things they believe in, and to step up and accept the challenge of serving in leadership roles.

Wilma Mankiller

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Wilma Mankiller
Age: 64 †
Born: 1945
Born: November 18
Died: 2010
Died: April 6
Author
Autobiographer
Tribal Chief
Writer
Сhief Of The Cherokee Nation
Tahlequah
Oklahoma
Chief Wilman Mankiller
A-ji-luhsgi Asgaya-dihi
Wilma Pearl Mankiller
Take
Risk
Dance
Encourage
Trying
Willing
Accept
Describe
Believe
Challenges
Step
Edge
Things
Stand
Leadership
Serving
Friends
Along
Edges
Someone
Accepting
Likes
Young
Steps
Sing
Roof
Women
Roles
Challenge
Risks

More quotes by Wilma Mankiller

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Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it - and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo.
Wilma Mankiller
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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
Wilma Mankiller
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People say that crisis changes people and turns ordinary people into wiser or more responsible ones.
Wilma Mankiller
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A lot of young girls have looked to their career paths and have said they'd like to be chief. There's been a change in the limits people see.
Wilma Mankiller
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Negative thoughts were treated by Cherokee healers with the same medicines as wounds, headaches, or physical illness. It was believed that unchecked negative thoughts can permeate the being and manifest themselves in negative actions.
Wilma Mankiller
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Take care how you place your moccasins upon the Earth, step with care, for the faces of the future generations are looking up from the Earth waiting their turn for life.
Wilma Mankiller
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In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.
Wilma Mankiller
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Growth is a painful process. If we’re ever going to collectively begin to grapple with the problems that we have collectively, we’re going to have to move back the veil and deal with each other on a more human level.
Wilma Mankiller
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America would be a better place if leaders would do more long-term thinking.
Wilma Mankiller
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Remember that I am just a woman who is living a very abundant life. Every step I take forward is on a path paved by strong Indian women before me.
Wilma Mankiller
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I think the most important issue we have as a people is what we started, and that is to begin to trust our own thinking again and belive in ourselves enough to think that we can articulate our own vision of the future and then work to make sure that that vision becomes a reality.
Wilma Mankiller
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We must trust our own thinking. Trust where we're going. And get the job done.
Wilma Mankiller
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Whoever controls the education of our children controls the future.
Wilma Mankiller
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I don't think anybody anywhere can talk about the future of their people or of an organization without talking about education. Whoever controls the education of our children controls our future.
Wilma Mankiller
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Look forward. Turn what has been done into a better path.
Wilma Mankiller
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I hope many of you will be people that question why things are and why we have to do them the way we have always done them. I hope you will take some risks, exert some real leadership on issues, and if you will, dance along the edge of the roof as you continue for life.
Wilma Mankiller
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Everybody is sitting around saying, 'Well, jeez, we need somebody to solve this problem of bias.' That somebody is us. We all have to try to figure out a better way to get along.
Wilma Mankiller
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My ability to survive personal crises is really a mark of the character of my people. Individually and collectively, we must react with a tenacity that allows us again and again to bounce back from adversity.
Wilma Mankiller
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I've run into more discrimination as a woman than as an Indian.
Wilma Mankiller
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An Indian is an Indian regardless of the degree of Indian blood or which little government card they do or do not possess.
Wilma Mankiller