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jiujensu's review
4.0
This is a great read about the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. She overcame a phenomenal amount and contributed much to society. The tone of the book, however, was very reserved and overly concerned with moral uprightness than openness.
julie_tibbs's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Absolute work of art!
cocoonofbooks's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars. This book starts with a heavy focus on the history of the Cherokee people and includes more and more of Mankiller's own life as the book goes on. The content was well worth reading, but I wish the writing had been better; in memoirs I'm used to a series of individual stories that serve to represent different periods of a person's life, but Mankiller tells very few "one day this happened" stories and sticks mostly to generalities in a kind of "I did this and then I did this and after a while I decided to do this instead" approach.
If you can get past the writing, though, this is still worth a read, especially if you aren't already familiar with a lot of the history of indigenous peoples in the United States. Having read [b:Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee|76401|Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee An Indian History of the American West|Dee Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388209846s/76401.jpg|1240262], there wasn't a ton that was new or surprising to me, but the focus specifically on the Cherokee Nation helped to provide a detailed backdrop for Mankiller's own story. Expected to become a docile housewife in the 1960s, she instead pursued her passions and ended up involved with a lot of the activism happening in the late 1960s while also working for the Cherokee Nation. She then dealt with a serious accident and two major health crises before becoming deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation and eventually the first female principal chief. I wish the writing had had more detail than the factual statements she provided of the order of events, because her personality doesn't really come through, while at the same time you understand that she's clearly a remarkable woman to have been through everything she has and still accomplish everything she did.
I'd be interested to know if any existing biographies of Wilma Mankiller provide a more full-color picture of her as a person than this autobiography does. Still, I appreciated the chance to hear her story (and the story of her people) told in her own voice. I'm glad to have read this.
If you can get past the writing, though, this is still worth a read, especially if you aren't already familiar with a lot of the history of indigenous peoples in the United States. Having read [b:Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee|76401|Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee An Indian History of the American West|Dee Brown|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388209846s/76401.jpg|1240262], there wasn't a ton that was new or surprising to me, but the focus specifically on the Cherokee Nation helped to provide a detailed backdrop for Mankiller's own story. Expected to become a docile housewife in the 1960s, she instead pursued her passions and ended up involved with a lot of the activism happening in the late 1960s while also working for the Cherokee Nation. She then dealt with a serious accident and two major health crises before becoming deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation and eventually the first female principal chief. I wish the writing had had more detail than the factual statements she provided of the order of events, because her personality doesn't really come through, while at the same time you understand that she's clearly a remarkable woman to have been through everything she has and still accomplish everything she did.
I'd be interested to know if any existing biographies of Wilma Mankiller provide a more full-color picture of her as a person than this autobiography does. Still, I appreciated the chance to hear her story (and the story of her people) told in her own voice. I'm glad to have read this.
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