Several attendees of the Heart of American Indian Women’s Conference take a walk around Shore Acres State Park Friday morning. The stop was one of several on a tour of the area. World Photo by Lou Sennick

Rather than preaching the principles of mentorship, guidance and community involvement, Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to be elected chief to the Cherokee Nation, lives by them.

Delivering the keynote address at the Coquille Tribe's first national gathering, the Heart of the American Indian Women's Conference, on Thursday, Mankiller discussed the challenges of her own life. The conference theme, involving young women in tribal leadership, reaches far beyond native Americans, to all women, Mankiller said.

“The same principles apply to native women as they do to all young women,” she said.

Involving young women in leadership roles in the community, in government and society is a critical issue, she added.

Finding the strength to face her own challenges came partially through the great assistance, inspiration and motivation provided to Mankiller by older and experienced women - especially the mentorship provided by a woman Mankiller met at the San Francisco Native Center at the age of 11.

“She literally and symbolically extended her hand to me,” Mankiller said in an interview Thursday. “She saw me ... at the center, and saw something in me that I couldn't see in myself.”

At first, Mankiller's mentor referred her for baby-sitting jobs, helping her to earn her own way and learn responsibility. Those were lessons Mankiller's parents also instilled in their 11 children. But when it came to college, Mankiller found her mentor's expectations far exceeded her own.

“I wouldn't have been able to go to college if she hadn't mentored me,” she said. “I just didn't think I could go.”

That experience changed Mankiller's life forever. Through the guidance of her mentor and further education, she found the confidence to run for assistant deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation. She was later appointed to the chief position before she was elected to two consecutive terms.

“Getting to the point where you have the confidence to ask people to elect you, is an incremental process,” Mankiller said. “People think it happens all of a sudden, and maybe it does for some people, but for me it was a long, incremental change.”

When Mankiller first ran for office in 1983, there were only 69 women in tribal leadership positions. Now there are more than 130.

“I have always believed that the world will be a better place when we have more equity and balance between men and women in every aspect of our lives,” she said.

The woman who has become an icon for Native American women throughout the United States said she believes that involving young women in leadership is an important issue throughout the country - and to instigate that involvement, wiser, more experienced women must extend their hands in fellowship.

“There is still inequity of pay, under representation on corporate boards and in political circles,” she said. “We have to continually push for progress both socially and politically, but there's also personal progress to be made.”

Banding together is vital to overcoming the challenges before all women, she added. But first, women must first define their individual concepts of what women are, she added.

“Before women can engage in the battles they need to fight, they need to understand what it means to them to be a woman. They need to define it for themselves,” she said. “Whether that means being a long-distance swimmer or a CIA agent, that's what they need to be.”

Finding that definition will be difficult, as American society exerts a lot of pressure on individuals to conform, Mankiller said - but in the end, it's absolutely necessary.

Women's intelligence can be demeaned by all types of people in all walks of life, she said, especially beautiful women. Society places a premium on the appearance of women. Those with greater attributes are seen as simply a face, while those without physical beauty are dismissed completely, she added.

“We have to try to get people to value humanity in people, and their kindness,” Mankiller said.

The mother of two grown daughters, Mankiller said she doesn't sit down and tell her daughters these things, but prefers to live as an example.

“Both my daughters are very involved with the community. They are involved with tribal leadership and they're very generous,” Mankiller said with a smile. “I've always told them life is better lived if we work together - so they're doing that.”