The Cherokee Word for Water is a feature-length motion picture that tells the story of the work that led Wilma Mankiller to become the first modern woman Chief of the Cherokee Nation. 

The movie is based on the true story of the Bell Waterline Project. Set in the early 1980s in the homes of a rural Oklahoma Cherokee community where many houses lack running water and others are little more than shacks. After centuries of being dehumanized and dispossessed of their land and identity, the people no longer feel they have power or control over their lives or future.

“The Cherokee Word for Water has the same kind of elements of a Pixar film. It has a compelling story and a world that not many people know about. It’s about how a community fought against everything to control their own destiny.”

-Darla Anderson (Academy Award winning Pixar producer)

“The Cherokee Word For Water is a very rare story because it is about the empowerment of people who have been made to feel they have no power. It is step-by-step, person-by-person, emotion-by-emotion something we all know we can follow. Like Wilma Mankiller’s philosophy it shows us that change grows from the roots up, the bottom up, like a tree.”  

-Gloria Steinem

“This film is about everyday people doing what they think is impossible”

- Charlie Soap