[Throughout the mid-20th century, Osage dancer
Maria Tallchief wowed audiences with her graceful, gravity-defying performances. Now, the barrier-breaking ballerina is the latest woman featured on the United States quarter.
This week, the U.S. Mint
unveiled the newest coin in its
American Women Quarters Program, which celebrates prominent women throughout history by placing their likenesses on the reverse side of special quarters. The Secretary of the Treasury
selects the honorees in consultation with the Smithsonian’s
American Women’s History Initiative, the
National Women’s History Museum and the bipartisan
Women’s Caucus. The Mint began shipping the
Tallchief quarters on October 23.
The dancer was born in 1925 on Osage Nation land in northern Oklahoma. Her name was Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief, but she later decided to combine her last name into one word and go by her middle name.
Tallchief and her sister, Marjorie, began taking dance lessons as young girls. The family—which lived on money from oil discovered on Osage Nation land—spent many summers at a resort in Colorado.
“Every July and August, my parents drove to Colorado Springs, where Daddy played golf and Mother, Marjorie and I played in the pool of the Broadmoor Hotel,”
wrote Tallchief in her 1997 autobiography. “When I was three, Mother took me for my first ballet lesson in the Broadmoor's basement. What I remember most is that the ballet teacher told me to stand straight and turn each of my feet out to the side, the first position. I couldn't believe it. But I did what I was told.”]
Born on Osage land in Oklahoma, the famous dancer broke barriers for Native American women
www.smithsonianmag.com
/https%3A%2F%2Ftf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffiler_public%2F38%2Fa0%2F38a0ebf8-a728-4d97-8108-c978d9bf18b1%2Fscreenshot_2023-11-02_at_13123_pm.png)
