MANKILLER: A Chief and Her People ...

MANKILLER: A Chief and Her People by Wilma Mankiller and Michael Wallis (St. Martin’s Press: $13.95; 296 pp., illustrated). The first woman to become chief of the Cherokee tribe, Mankiller intertwines the story of her life with the history of her people. Their struggle against forced relocation, alcoholism, poverty and cultural deprivation parallels her own search for identity and battle with hereditary kidney disease. Drawing on the Cherokee tradition of women providing an important voice in tribal matters, Mankiller emerges as an intelligent, caring and effective leader.