American Indian women are more than "beautiful Mazola maidens in buckskin," and are slowly but surely returning to positions of leadership in tribal government, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation told students yesterday.

Wilma Mankiller, who has led the 72,000-member Oklahoma tribe since December of 1984, told an audience of 65 in Boylston Hall that stereotypes in books and movies ignore the fact that many tribes were once controlled by women, who often wielded real power although they lacked honorary titles.

She said women's power declined because "as we became more acculturated, our culture picked up a new value: sexism." In fact, she added, Europeans encountering the Cherokee nation claimed that the tribe had a "petticoat government," because women held so large a share of power.

The chief also said she hoped her trip to Harvard would help eliminate students' sterotypes of Indians as much as it has eliminated her sterotype of Harvard students.

Her visit was sponsored by the Harvard Foundation, the College's center for interracial relations and awareness. S. Allen Counter, the Foundation's director, presented an award to Mankiller on Thursday for "outstanding leadership and contribution to native American culture."

"Chief' won't ever be a male term again," said Mankiller, describing many Indians' astonishment at her successful 1983 candidacy for deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation, a position equivalent to vice president.

She said her scant resemblance to the stereotype of an Indian chief provoked some of her opposition in that campaign. "I think some of them expected me to ride on a horse with feathers," she said. However, she added that "the ones who supported me were the traditional people."

Others feared before her election that she would deal only with "women's issues," she added. "But what are `women's issues?'" Mankiller asked. "Everything is a woman's issue--world peace, the environment, hunger."

In December 1984, when President Reagan appointed the principal chief head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Mankiller succeeded him in an election that made her a far smaller issue of her sex. "It's been interesting having people agree or disagree with me on the issues, not because I'm a woman," she said.

Mankiller said she also proved herself to the leaders of Oklahoma's five-nation tribal confederation, who at first refused to speak to her--"maybe they thought I was there to get them coffee." She became president of the coalition in 1985. "They may not love me, but at least they respect me," she said.

"Not all tribes are as progressive as ours," said Mankiller, who said some Native American cultures, especially in the Southwest United States, preserve traditions that bar women from power.

Mankiller said she hopes to sponsor a conference on the changing role of Indian women, with an emphasis on increasing their power in tribal administration.