An iconic chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller, impressed numerous Native American youngsters as a strong however humble chief who expanded early schooling and rural healthcare.
Her attain is now broadening with a quintessential American honor: a Barbie doll within the late Mankiller’s likeness as a part of toymaker Mattel’s “Inspiring Women” collection.
A public ceremony honoring Mankiller’s legacy is ready for Tuesday in Tahlequah in northeast Oklahoma, the place the Cherokee Nation is headquartered.
Mankiller was the nation’s first feminine principal chief, main the tribe for a decade till 1995. She targeted on enhancing social situations by means of consensus and on restoring delight in Native heritage. She met with three U.S. presidents and acquired the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.
She additionally met snide remarks about her surname — a navy title — with humor, usually delivering a straight-faced response: “Mankiller is actually a well-earned nickname.” She died in 2010.
The tribe’s present chief, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., applauded Mattel for commemorating Mankiller.
“When Native girls see it, they can achieve it, and Wilma Mankiller has shown countless young women to be fearless and speak up for Indigenous and human rights,” Hoskin stated in a press release. “Wilma Mankiller is a champion for the Cherokee Nation, for Indian Country, and even my own daughter.”
Mankiller, whose likeness is on a U.S. quarter issued in 2021, is the second Native American girl honored with a Barbie doll. Famed aviator Bessie Coleman, who was of Black and Cherokee ancestry, was depicted earlier this 12 months.
Different dolls within the collection embody Maya Angelou, Ida B. Wells, Jane Goodall and Madam C.J. Walker.
The rollout of the Barbie doll that includes Mankiller carrying a ribbon skirt, black footwear and carrying a woven basket has been met with conflicting reactions.
Many say the doll is a becoming tribute for a outstanding chief who confronted battle head-on and helped the tribe triple its enrollment, double its employment and construct new well being facilities and youngsters’s applications.
Nonetheless, some Cherokee ladies are vital, saying Mattel missed problematic particulars on the doll and the packaging.
“Mixed emotions shared by me and many other Cherokee women who have now purchased the product revolve around whether a Wilma Barbie captures her legacy, her physical features and the importance of centering Cherokee women in decision making,” Stacy Leeds, the regulation faculty dean at Arizona State College and a former Cherokee Nation Supreme Courtroom justice, informed The Related Press in an electronic mail.
Regina Thompson, a Cherokee basket weaver who grew up close to Tahlequah, doesn’t suppose the doll seems to be like Mankiller. Mattel ought to have thought-about conventional pucker toe moccasins, as an alternative of black footwear, and included symbols on the basket that Cherokees use to inform a narrative, she stated.
“Wilma’s name is the only thing Cherokee on that box,” Thompson stated. “Nothing about that doll is Wilma, nothing.”
The Cherokee language symbols on the packaging are also fallacious, she famous. Two symbols look related, and the one used interprets to “Chicken,” moderately than “Cherokee.”
Mattel spokesperson Devin Tucker stated the corporate is conscious of the issue with the syllabary and is “discussing options.” The corporate labored with Mankiller’s property, which is led by her husband, Charlie Cleaning soap, and her good friend, Kristina Kiehl, on the creation of the doll. Cleaning soap and Kiehl didn’t reply to messages left by the AP.
Mattel didn’t seek the advice of with the Cherokee Nation on the doll.
“Regrettably, the Mattel company did not work directly with the tribal government’s design and communications team to secure the official Seal or verify it,” the tribe stated in a press release. “The printing mistake itself does not diminish what it means for the Cherokee people to see this tribute to Wilma and who she was and what she stood for.”
A number of Cherokees additionally criticized Mattel for not consulting with Mankiller’s solely surviving youngster, Felicia Olaya, who stated she was unaware of the doll till a couple of week earlier than its public launch.
“I have no issues with the doll. I have no issues with honoring my mom in different ways,” stated Olaya, who acknowledged she and Cleaning soap, her stepfather, are estranged. “The issue is that no one informed me, no one told me. I didn’t know it was coming.”
Olaya additionally wonders how her mom would really feel about being honored with a Barbie doll.
“I heard her once on the phone saying, ‘I’m not Princess Diana, nor am I Barbie,’” Olaya recalled. “I think she probably would have been a little conflicted on that, because my mom was very humble. She wasn’t the type of person who had her honorary degrees or awards plastered all over the wall. They were in tubs in her pole barn.”
“I’m not sure how she would feel about this,” Olaya stated.
Nonetheless, Olaya stated she hopes to purchase a number of the dolls for her grandchildren and is all the time grateful for folks to find out about her mom’s legacy.
“I have a warm feeling about the thought of my granddaughters playing with a Wilma Mankiller Barbie,” she stated.
