Welcome to #5 in my Look Her Up needlepoint/women’s history series. Wilma Mankiller was the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation and a well respected leader locally and nationally, having the ear of U.S. Presidents for her ideas on Native American and women’s issues. You will learn a great deal about the Cherokee Nation and of Indigenous women’s immediate worries and actions concerning the kidnapping, disappearances, and murders of Indigenous women. Take time to use the internet, books, newspapers and other avenues of education to look up Wilma Mankiller, the Trail of Tears, and the hashtag, #MMIW.

This piece was worked on 18 mesh canvas in Rainbow Gallery Silk Splendor. It measures 11 3/8″ x 8 3/8″. The stars represent the seven-pointed star of the Cherokee Nation. The colors represent those most valued by the citizens of the Nation, including reds, yellows, green, and brown. Blue and black are excluded because they are considered representatives of sadness and death. The image includes two banners with a red hand, a symbol used by the movement to stop the violence against Native American women.