About Maria Tallchief
Maria Tallchief, born Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief (𐓏𐒰𐓐𐒿𐒷-𐓍𐓂͘𐓄𐒰 "Two-Standards"; Osage family name: Ki He Kah Stah Tsa, Osage script: 𐒼𐒱𐒹𐒻𐒼𐒰-𐓆𐓈𐒷𐓊𐒷; January 24, 1925 – April 11, 2013), was an Osage ballerina. She was America's first major prima ballerina and the first Native American to hold the rank. Together with Georgian-American choreographer George Balanchine, she is widely considered to have revolutionized American ballet. == Early life == Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma, on January 24, 1925, as the third child of Alexander Joseph Tall Chief (1890–1959), a member of the Osage Nation, and his second wife, Ruth (née Porter), of Scottish-Irish descent. Porter had met Alexander Tall Chief, then a widower, while visiting her sister, who was his mother's housekeeper at the time. Elizabeth Marie was known as "Betty Marie" to friends and family. Elizabeth Tall Chief's paternal great-grandfather, Peter Bigheart, had helped negotiate for the Osage concerning rights to mineral and other resources of their reservation land. When oil was discovered, oil revenues enriched members of the Osage Nation. Her father grew up with wealth, never working "a day in his life." In her autobiography, Tallchief explained, "As a young girl growing up on the Osage reservation in Fairfax, Oklahoma, I felt my father owned the town. He had property everywhere.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.