Tetona Dunlap is a graduate student in journalism at the University of Montana. She is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.

If well-behaved women seldom make history, this explains why two influential women who passed away this past week will never be forgotten.

On April 6, Wilma Mankiller died after battling pancreatic cancer. Three days later Minnie Two Shoes died after her own struggle with cancer. I had the chance to meet both of these inspiring Native American women through journalism.

Mankiller came to speak to my class when I participated in the American Indian Journalism Institute in South Dakota in 2003. Mankiller was the first woman to serve the Cherokee people as principal chief. She was an advocate for Native American and women’s rights. She has also written two books. One is an autobiography titled, “Mankiller: A Chief and Her People” and “Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women.” As a result of her activism, she was received several awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. She was also inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in New York City in 1994.

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Tags: Alcatraz island, Alcatraz occupation, American Indian Journalism Institute, American Indian Movement, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Assiniboine Sioux, buffalo post, Cherokee, Fort Peck Reservation, Gwen Florio, Minnie Two Shoes, Mohawk, MTS Productions, Native American Journalists Association, Native American news, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Richard Oakes, Tetona Dunlap, Urban Indian Relocation Program, Wilma Mankiller, Women's Hall of Fame