Wilma Mankiller - Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women

every day is a good day

In this book by Indigenous Women, let us now acquaint ourselves and learn from those who have withstood the insatiable rages of the weak, who have used rifles, bad laws, atomic bombs, chemical and biological warfare to make their disastrous impression on the world. Let us who have suffered so much, and those who have been ignorant of suffering, grow our hearts again to their utter fullness. Hearing these voices, let us know the tide is beginning to turn, that knowledge of the way of balance has not been lost. Let us welcome home in ourselves, and in the world, the wisdom of the strong.

Alice Walker, author,The Color Purple

For the millennia, the womens centrality in the role of Native communities is undisputed. Here, Wilma Mankiller has invoked the articulate and compelling voices of contemporary Native women to address issues so critical to the continuance of the Native cultural experience.

Richard West, director, National Museum of the American Indian

Reading Every Day Is a Good Day is like sitting down with a wise group of women friends who are generous enough to share lifes lessons with you. Since these Native American women have layers of wisdom that younger cultures have yet to discover, joining their circle could balance and even save your life.

Marlo Thomas, actor and activist

Text 2004, 2011 Wilma P. Mankiller

Photos 2004 Charlie Soap, except Mary and Carrie Dann, 2004 Hulleah Tsijinnie; Sarah James, 2004 Roy Corral; Rosalie Little Thunder, 2004 Timothy Kills in Water; and Wilma Mankiller with Louise Erdrich, John Ratzloff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mankiller, Wilma Pearl, 1945-2010.

Every day is a good day : reflections by contemporary indigenous women

/ Wilma Mankiller ; forewords by Louise Erdrich and Vine Deloria, Jr. ;

introduction by Gloria Steinem. -- Memorial ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-55591-691-6 (pbk.)

1. Indian women--Psychology. 2. Indian women--Social conditions. 3.

Indian women--Biography. 4. Indian philosophy. I. Title.

E98.W8M25 2011

970.004'97--dc22

2011004322

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Interior design: Ann W. Douden

Fulcrum Publishing

4690 Table Mountain Drive, Suite 100

Golden, Colorado 80403

(800) 992-2908 (303) 277-1623

www.fulcrumbooks.com

The main difference between our people and the world around us is our thankfulness and respect for the Earth, our environment, and the natural world. In our way, every day is a good day.

Audrey Shenandoah, Onondaga

We Native Americans are varied hues in a bronzed and battered Native world and present an uneven view of tribal traditions.

Dr. Beatrice Medicine, Lakota

contents

foreword

Louise Erdrich

When this book was first published, Wilma Mankiller came to the bookstore I own in Minneapolis, Birchbark Books. That she would agree to come to the store in spite of her precarious health and her many responsibilities both surprised and moved me. It was clear to me that she deeply cared about this book. She was committed to giving Native women a voice in this world.

Wilmas humble, strong, and radiant presence graced the bookstore, the church where she gave her reading, and me. I still have the introduction I wrote, slipped into a reading copy of Every Day Is a Good Day . The short time we spent together fortified me. I had always admired Wilma, and her life story resonated with me, as it does with so many Native women. She had gracefully negotiated the tough, men-only world of Indian politics. She had raised children on her own, faced trauma and accidents, and lived with cancer. Her life was achingly and personally familiar to us all. Her accomplishments, however, stood alone. For that reason, I had expected to meet someone with a bigger ego or a toughened persona, an edge that shed certainly had to develop in order to survive.

Instead, in those short hours, I was delighted to walk with a woman of quiet kindness who was genuinely interested in those around her. It was a warm fall day and there were still leaves wafting through the air around us. The people whod come to the bookstore were proud and excited to meet Wilma. She made everyone feel that they were doing the right thing, pursuing an important course, defining themselves with dignity. All without a hint of schmaltz. It was an every day very good day.

As for this book, it is a fascinating achievement. There is wisdom on every single page. It is a touchstone book, one to keep on your bedside table. A book to reach for when you cant sleep. A companion book filled with the struggles of other Native women. An honest book resonating with humor and survival strategy.

When introducing Wilma Mankiller, I said that she was a representative of our best selves. I didnt just mean Native women, though, I meant everyone. If everyone cared as much about their people, their family, if everyone worked steadfastly for others, if everyone knew that making ones community a better place is an everyday task and you cant let up, yes, wed live in a more ideal world. But neither Wilma nor any of the women in this book have ever lived there. We live in a frayed and torn world, filled with marvelous opportunities and stunning inequality, a world of shattering blows and sudden loveliness. It takes a greathearted woman to take that all in, and that was Wilma, as greathearted as the voices in this book.

When you take this well-made book into your hands, please feel the heft of voices, the experience, the diversity within the term Native woman , and the joy of being who you are, and who we are. All of that lies within, and much more. Lastly, one of Wilmas greatest accomplishments was this: she went home and she made a positive difference. It is true, she left again last year. Again, she went home. To many of us, the sky looks brighter because shes up there still making a positive difference.

Louise Erdrich, Gakaabiikong (Minneapolis), 2011

foreword

Vine Deloria Jr.

Wilma Mankiller has long been in the forefront of social and political action nationally and in her various communities, be it San Francisco, the Cherokee Nation, or the bewildering number of tribes where she is a welcome and cherished visitor. Her biography, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, chronicles a lifetime of adventures, disappointments, and successes, and above all the determination to go forward regardless of the cost. This attitude of enduring optimism has given strength to the many people who look up to her as an example of a traditional Indian lady.

The old Indian war cry Its a good day to die bespoke of the courage and fearlessness of men in battle and indicated that life was not worth living if one approached it with too much caution. Freedom demanded the willingness to sacrifice everything to ensure personal integrity. But what of the long periods between wars and crises? What about the daily lives we seek to fill with substance? Wilma has wisely taken the war cry and shown that Indian women have a spirit that transcends even the commitment to courage and love and holds societies together through the force of deeply cherished personalities. Every day is a good day, Wilma tells us, and this insight pervades the lives of Indian women who, regardless of the situation they faced, turned hardship into prosperity and created an identity for their people that could not be destroyed.