Betty Marie Tallchief was born on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma. There she was introduced to attending pow woos with her grandmother. Fortunate for her, the Osage people were generally wealthy due to oil having been found on their reservation. Her father had been prudent in investing his oil money wisely, and her mother used the money to get dance lessons for Maria and her sister, Marjorie. When they were young women the family moved to Los Angeles so the girls could continue their dance education. Her name was changed to Maria Tallchief so as to make it more exotic as a title for her dance. So although raised mostly off the reservation, Maria was the first indigenous person to become a prima ballerina. She was the first American to break into the Russian and Paris ballets.
After she retired, she and her sister organized the Chicago ballet. She served as the choreographer. She was inducted to the National Women's Hall of Fame. She received the National Medal of Arts. She also received honors at the Kennedy Center for her contribution to dance. The Osage honored her with a new name when she was older, Wa-Xthe-Thomba, meaning woman of two worlds. She was a member of the European style of dance, as well as that of a Native American woman.
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