Archive for April, 2010
Wilma Pearl Mankiller, one of the few female leaders of a large American Indian tribe, has passed away at the age of 64 of pancreatic cancer on April 6, 2010.
Congressman Dan Boren of Oklahoma has announced that he will introduce a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives honoring her life. Boren said “Chief Wilma Mankiller was in inspiration to Native American women both within her tribe and across the nation,” said Boren. “Her service to her tribe and her dedication to advancing the role of women within it set a strong example for young Native American women everywhere to follow. She is a legendary figure in the cultural fabric of Oklahoma. It is my honor to introduce this resolution to acknowledge her.”
Born in 1945, one of eleven children, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma she lived in California for a time and moved back to Oklahoma in 1977. Mankiller took an entry level job in the Cherokee Nation and worked her way up to Chief in 1985. She served until her poor health forced her to resign in 1995.
As chief, Mankiller, increased the size of the tribe, built new health centers, created new programs for children and doubled employment among members of the tribe. She went on to create a career as a professional speaker and best selling author.
Mankiller is survived by her husband Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi and their two daughters Felicia Olaya, born in 1964, and Gina Olaya, born in 1966.
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As members of the fourth and fifth generation of a Wyoming ranching legacy we have been blessed to learn from a strong matriarchal line that dates back to before Wyoming was a state. Both of us have been trying to “Cowgirl Up” just like the women before us our entire lives. Kelsey, one of her three granddaughters relates “Watching Grandma Nan take on ranching, politics, business, and community stewardship from such a young age has shaped my life entirely”. Both my mother, (the older of Nedalyn’s two daughters) and I wanted to share with you a picture of the wonderful woman we refer to as Mother or Gramma Nan and share what we have learned from her as we continue the journey for the next generations. We hope that her story may ignite the Cowgirl Spirit that resides in all of us.
“I am a rancher. I have always been one and always will be. I’ve been a lifetime rancher by choice because I’ve always loved the land and livestock unconditionally. I like cattle and horses, the land and people who live on it. For me there can be no greater way to contribute during a lifetime than to be a part of beholding and upholding the daily stewardship necessary to continue a ranching operation over generations.” These were the words Nedalyn Testolin used to begin her remarks as the first woman selected to receive the prestigious Wyoming Stockgrowers award titled “Guardian of the Grasslands”. Recipients of this award exemplify the values and practices that maintain and reinforce the principles and beliefs on which family, land, livestock, community and the state of Wyoming must guard in order to continue the legacy that make it a wonderful place to call home. And this is the part of the legacy that Nedalyn has given to her family, friends, and future generations of Wyoming women.
Nedalyn grew up on her family’s ranch in southeast Wyoming during the Great Depression. Times were tough and Nedalyn was helping her father at a very young age. She spent time doing things that little girls were normally never allowed to do as that work was the responsibility for the men and boys. As she and her father rode over the ridge of one of the neighboring ranches Nedalyn very matter-of-factly informed her father that she knew where she wanted to have her ranch. They both sat on their horses on that ridge and gazed down on what would later everyone would know as Brush Creek. At the age of six she announced to her father, Ned, that this ranch will be mine someday…..and for the past 50 plus years that ranch has been the headquarters of the Thirty One Bar Ranch Company at Brush Creek. That is what you call a visionary……
Nedalyn (or Gramma Nan as some of us call her) just turned 80 and she and her husband Tony still live at the ranch. Even though she has had to delegate some of the day to day operations to family members it is still quite clear who in charge of this business.
What is it about her that makes her such an exceptional woman? Nedalyn attests that there have been three guiding principles throughout her life; agriculture, family values and education. She has passed those on to two going on three generations of family members by modeling them on an every day basis. Rare are those people who are equally as comfortable discussing the long term strategic direction of the state of Wyoming with the governor (either political party) to preparing, serving and hosting a perfect dinner party with all the cutlery and china exquisitely set on a lace tablecloth (no paper plates ever in sight) to chairing a board meeting of the Wyoming Board of Education (one of many education boards that she sat on voluntarily for 50 years of service to Wyoming education) to loping a horse across 15 miles of barren plains looking for the last cow and calf pair, to sharing stories and playing cards with the grandchildren and great grandchildren in the living room of the sprawling ranch house where all visitors are always welcomed, to giving a new born baby calf a bottle to keep it alive when its 20 below zero, to shoveling snow or driving a snowcat in a blinding snowstorm to make sure the animals are fed, to laughing and joking around the kitchen table with a bunch of cowboys who have just finished the spring branding. I have watched my mother do each of these things many times and never even lose stride as she transitions from one thing to another. You realize how rare this is as many of you reading this may have no idea what we are talking about in some of these examples……That is what it means to “Cowgirl Up”.
We wanted to leave you with the Cowboy’s Prayer which is something else we learned from Gramma. She would tell you that no one who has ever spent any time in agriculture would doubt the belief in a God of some kind and her strong spiritual principles are also a part of what makes her as we say in Wyoming “someone to ride the river with.” As all of you go about your busy lives, we hope that all your trails are happy and your principles guide your ride.
O Lord, I’ve never lived where churches grow; I’ve loved creation better as it stood
That day you finished it, so long ago, and looked upon your work and called it good.
Just let me live my life as I’ve begun!
And give me work that’s open to the sky;
Make me a partner of the wind and sun, an I won’t ask a life that’s soft and high.
Make me as big and open as the plains;
As honest as the horse between my knees;
Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains;
Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze.
Just keep an eye on all that’s done and said;
Just right me sometime when I turn aside;
And guide me on the long, dim trail ahead – That stretches upward towards the Great Divide.
Author anonymous
Remember, If you ever find yourself in Southeast Wyoming and have some spare time to spend consider yourself a friend at the Thirty One Bar. Nedalyn as well as her daughters and granddaughters will be glad to see you and share their Wyoming story.
Submitted by Kelsey Good kelsgood@hotmail.com and
Lael Good lael.good@kenblanchard.com
