Barbie doll honouring Cherokee Nation leader met with mixed emotions

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP):

An iconic chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller, inspired countless Native American children as a powerful, but humble leader who expanded early education and rural healthcare. Her reach is now broadening with a quintessential American honour: a Barbie doll in the late Mankiller’s likeness as part of toymaker Mattel’s Inspiring Women series.

A public ceremony honouring Mankiller’s legacy is set for Tuesday in Tahlequah in northeast Oklahoma, where the Cherokee Nation is headquartered.

Mankiller was the nation’s first female principal chief, leading the tribe for a decade until 1995. She focused on improving social conditions through consensus and on restoring pride in Native heritage. She met with three US presidents and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.

She also met snide remarks about her surname — a military title — with humour, often delivering a straight-faced response: “Mankiller is actually a well-earned nickname.” She died in 2010.

The tribe’s current leader, 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 said in a statement.

Mankiller, whose likeness is on a US quarter issued in 2021, is the second Native American woman honoured with a Barbie doll. Famed aviator Bessie Coleman, who was of black and Cherokee ancestry, was depicted earlier this year.

The rollout of the Barbie doll featuring Mankiller wearing a ribbon skirt, black shoes and carrying a woven basket has been met with conflicting reactions.

Many say the doll is a fitting tribute for a remarkable leader who faced conflict head-on and helped the tribe triple its enrollment, double its employment, but still, some Cherokee women are critical, saying Mattel overlooked problematic details 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 centreing Cherokee women in decision-making,” Stacy Leeds, the law school dean at Arizona State University and a former Cherokee Nation Supreme Court justice, told The Associated Press in an email.

Regina Thompson, a Cherokee basket-weaver who grew up near Tahlequah, doesn’t think the doll looks like Mankiller. Mattel should have considered traditional pucker toe moccasins, instead of black shoes, and included symbols on the basket that Cherokees use to tell a story, she said.

“Wilma’s name is the only thing Cherokee on that box,” Thompson said. “Nothing about that doll is Wilma, nothing.”

The Cherokee language symbols on the packaging also are wrong, she noted. Two symbols look similar, and the one used translates to “chicken”, rather than “Cherokee.”

Mattel spokesperson Devin Tucker said the company is aware of the problem with the syllabary and is “discussing options”. The company worked with Mankiller’s estate on the creation of the doll, but did not consult with the Cherokee Nation, the tribe said in a statement.

Several Cherokees also criticised Mattel for not consulting with Mankiller’s only surviving child, Felicia Olaya, who said she was unaware of the doll until about a week before its public launch. Olaya, who acknowledged she and Soap, her stepfather, are estranged, said her only issue is that she “didn’t know it was coming”.

Olaya also wonders how her mother would feel about being honoured 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.”

Still, Olaya said she hopes to buy some of the dolls for her grandchildren and is always grateful for people to learn about her mother’s legacy.

“I have a warm feeling about the thought of my grand-daughters playing with a Wilma Mankiller Barbie,” she said.