Module 5: Wilma Mankiller and the Future 21st Century Indigenous People

I reviewed a video of Wilma Mankiller speaking to a group of individuals at the Heard Museum for Arizona State University. The talk, titled “Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People,” explores what it means to be an indigenous person, what makes an indigenous person unique, and how those characteristics will help create a better future for all of us.

While YouTube is usually not considered an academic resource, this video was uploaded and sponsored by the University of Arizona. As such, this is a quality and trustworthy academic resource. In particular, I think this resource was selected because it acts as a contemporary primary source—an individual with lived experience who can speak with authority on Native issues. Mankiller was a Cherokee who presided as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995, and also spent much of her time advocating for recognition of Native people. Her authority, as it relates to her lived experience, is absolute. As non-Natives learning about Native culture, it’s one thing to talk about the resilience of Native people. However, it’s another thing to hear about the resilience of a people directly from them. Of course, as noted in the video, Mankiller does not “. . . speak for all indigenous people or even all Cherokee people. The thoughts that [she] . . . share[s] . . . are derived entirely from [her] own experience” (Mankiller, 18:39 - 18:53). I loved that she made this clear because while this video is a great resource, a viewer might too readily consider her words to be sweeping resolutions for connecting with indigenous people (especially given how credentialed she is). It can be easy to assume primary sources speak on behalf of collective experience. But it’s important to remember that as we connect the dots between history and personal accounts, individual experiences remain singular and unique.

The purpose of making a Native American focused journal into a blog is to experience having our thoughts and explorations publicly shared. These topics can be sensitive, so the blog is a great way to see how we use our skills of reflexivity to be honest, while navigating difficult conversations and ideas. It also allows us the opportunity to explore how our peers navigated the course material. The course discussions provided that as an opportunity. However, there’s something stripped down about a blog post that allows people to add a bit more personality, even within an academic space.

Work Cited

Mankiller, Wilma. Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People. YouTube,
uploaded by ASU Libraries, 10 December, 2013,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K_rVUmV7Y8&feature=youtu.be.

Comments

  1. EnriqueAugust 15, 2019 at 6:40 PM

    Hi Amelie,

    I enjoyed watching Ms. Mankiller and how she expresses herself regarding the tribes in Arizona. Also, although we can both agree that YouTube is not necessarily considered an academic resource, we can use it to search for credible and reliable educational material. I’ve used it as a tool to better my understanding pertaining to certain complex biological subjects such as chemistry and biology. One statement that I can appreciate pertaining to Ms. Mankiller speech is her expression on tribal governments working towards the improvement of education, economics, and social conditions of their people. This demonstrates that resiliency does exist in many tribal nations but isn’t exposed or covered by the media.

    Work Cited

    Libraries, ASU. “Wilma Mankiller: Challenges Facing 21st Century Indigenous People.” YouTube, YouTube, 10 Dec. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K_rVUmV7Y8&feature=youtu.be.

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