Life Bliss Magazine Mar 2009

An excellent resource for students of Native American women's history, Wilma Mankiller provides an overview of contemporary federal Indian policy and explores how Mankiller negotiated the relationship between the Cherokee Nation and the United States in the late 20th century. Wilma Mankiller's work for the Cherokee Nation helped to create a flourishing economy, an increased sense of pride, and a renewed sense of community for the residents of the nation over the twenty years that followed. This is the first biography of Wilma Mankiller written for an adult audience. Incorporating aspects of federal Indian policy and Cherokee History, chapters explore Mankiller's involvement at the Indian Center, her interactions with other Indian activists, and her participation in the occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969 and the Pit River tribes struggle in the early 1970s. Also covered is Cherokee history from the 1830s concerning the Trail of Tears and its impact on Cherokee identity. Chronological organization allows readers to discover Mankiller's growth and development from a student activist in San Francisco to a Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in rural northeastern Oklahoma. The book explores the themes of land, education, community, identity, treaty rights and sovereignty, and traditional tribal knowledge.

In every age, science and technology have advanced human civilization. From architecture to engineering, medicine to transportation, humans have invented extraordinary wonders. Over the centuries, new medicines and medical tools have cured and wiped out diseases. Medical technology has saved lives and has improved health for millions of people, increasing life expectancy for Americans from 49 years in 1900 to 77 years in 2000. In the twenty-first century, scientists continue developing new medical tools and techniques to treat cancer and other deadly diseases. In this book, we’ll explore seven wonders of medicine. These wonders include microscopes, which let doctors see the germs that cause disease. Other wonders are antibiotics, lifesaving drugs made from mold. We’ll learn how doctors are able to take a still-beating heart from one person and place it into another. And we’ll find out about nanomedicine, including tiny “robot doctors” that might one day travel inside the body. From the basic to the cutting edge, we’ll learn where medicine has been and where it’s headed.