OCU to Honor Wilma Mankiller with Tree Dedication
Gloria Steinem will be the guest of honor at a tree-planting ceremony at Oklahoma City University in remembrance of Wilma Pearl Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation who died last year. The ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday in the center of campus north of the Bishop W. Angie Smith Chapel on N.W. 23rd Street between Kentucky and Blackwelder avenues. It is open to the public.
Steinem is a famous political activist and journalist who advanced women’s causes in the 1960s and ’70s.
Mankiller led the Cherokee Nation from December 1985 to 1995. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. She was an advocate for American Indian and women’s rights.
Mankiller was instrumental in tripling the enrollment of the Cherokee tribe and opening medical clinics and a career services center.
OCU President Robert Henry and Steinem were among the honored dignitaries who spoke during Mankiller’s memorial service in April 2010.
