Wilma Mankiller should be as well known as Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, for she is one of the most inspiring freedom fighters our country has produced. The first woman to be named Chief of the Cherokee Nation, she is the subject of Valerie Red-Horse Mohl’s stirring, in-depth portrait, which recounts Mankiller’s remarkable journey from an impoverished Oklahoma childhood to being awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Clinton. When Mankiller was 10 years old, the government forced her family to relocate to San Francisco. Coming of age in the Bay Area during the civil rights era, she was inspired by the activism of both the Black Power and Women’s movements, and when she returned to Oklahoma she began her against-all-odds rise to prominence in the male-dominated Cherokee Nation, fighting to bring unprecedented benefits and autonomy to her people. This soft-spoken, iron-willed woman’s remarkable story comes to vivid life in this eye-opening documentary.

In competition for the Schlesinger Award.