I learned a long time ago that I can't control the challenges the creator sends my way, but I can control the way I think about them and deal with them

Every single person has leadership ability. Some step up and take them. Some don't. My answer was to step up and lead.

America would be a better place if leaders would do more long-term thinking.

My name is Mankiller, and in the old Cherokee Nation, when we lived here in the Southeast, we lived in semi-autonomous villages, and there was someone who watched over the village, who had the title of mankiller. And I'm not sure what you could equate that to, but it was sort of like a soldier or someone who was responsible for the security of the village, and so anyway this one fellow liked the title mankiller so well that he kept it as his name, and that's who we trace our ancestry back to.

Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief.

We must trust our own thinking. Trust where we're going. And get the job done.

I hope many of you will be people that question why things are and why we have to do them the way we have always done them. I hope you will take some risks, exert some real leadership on issues, and if you will, dance along the edge of the roof as you continue for life.