Talk:Maria Tallchief

Untitled
There is no mention of Ballanchine on the page for Maria Tallchief, but the Ballanchine page indicates that Tallchief and he were married. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.150.10.200 (talk) 16:11, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Name Clarification
From her autobiography:

They named me Elizabeth Marie after two grandmothers: Eliza Tall Chief, and my Grandma Porter, who'd been named for Marie Antoinette, and with whom I would spend a great deal of time as a child. They called me Betty Marie. (page 5)

One afternoon after a Rodeo rehearsal, Miss de Mille found me in the studio. Everyone else was gone but I was still working. I think she was impressed.

"You know, Betty Marie, I have some advice. There are so many Bettys and Elizabeths in ballet. If I were you I'd think about changing my name. Why don't you use your middle name alone and call yourself Maria?"

I was sensitive to the subject. Mr. Denham had already asked me to add an a to the end of my last name and call myself Tallchieva, but I refused. Tallchief was my name, and I was proud of it. But changing my first name seemed like a good idea.

"You could be Maria Tallchief," Miss de Mille said.

I adopted the name and informed the company, but it didn't become official until the following season. (page 27)

Ivar Y (talk) 14:41, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

And while we are clarifying her name, it would be really nice to know what Maria's original name "Ki He Kah Stah Tsa" actually means. I have searched in vain for that information in this article -- information which I, for one, am inclined to consider quite essential. Toddcs (talk) 08:39, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

Five Indian Balerinas
I'm not sure how to work this into the article but Maria Tallchief is often mentioned in connection with four other Indian ballerinas from Oklahoma. This group, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin and Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief, is well known in Oklahoma. There are at least two sculptures dedicated to them in Tulsa. There is a mural commerating them in the Oklahoma State Capitol. The group was awarded the inaugral National Cultural Treasures Award of the National Museum of the American Indian. Dsmdgold (talk) 03:17, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

User Dsmdgold -

When you say, "four other Indian ballerinas from Oklahoma" you obviously mean four other Native American ballerinas. Or, at least, say: "American Indian ballerinas." (Or what am I missing?) Toddcs (talk) 08:47, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

More sources
The article is fine as it stands but the introduction, specifically the lead sentence, needs more citations. I cited the fact she was the first person of Native American descent to become prima ballerina using the Time magazine as a primary source, but couldn't find anybody giving her credit as the first American 'major' prima ballerina.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 19:50, 15 April 2013 (UTC)
 * You are correct. That was an oversight on my part (eventually the relevant quotes will be incorporated into the body of the article).  The Time article is a good one which I used to help expand the article. --ThaddeusB (talk) 04:23, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

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Google Doodle traffic
The Google Doodle today is on Tallchief, so expect a lot of traffic. Glad to see that this page is in pretty decent shape, although the lead does have some peacock language we should fix. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 19:46, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

Obit ref is gone?
The Chicago Tribune obit ref (used almost 20 times in this article) sends me to an error page. So it might be gone. - Special-T (talk) 16:28, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Same for the Chicago Sun Times obit. - Special-T (talk) 22:41, 29 September 2021 (UTC)

What does first "major" prima ballerina mean?
Lead says she was America's first "major" prima ballerina. What does "major" mean here? Greg Dahlen (talk) 13:11, 2 October 2021 (UTC)

Osage Name
This topic has been brought up previously by and I want to applaud them for pointing this out. I've been meaning to note this on the talk page in order to ascertain further sources and clarity regarding her Osage name. Wikipedia lists it as "Ki He Kah Stah Tsa" which is the name that the National Native American Hall of Fame uses for her entry. Though, I am not certain if this was sourced from this article while researching about her. There are few sources online regarding her Osage name being this. Conversely, I've seen several more reliable instances of her name being listed as “Wa-Xthe-Thoṉba”, "Two Standards". For example the US Mint and the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Some further research indicates that "Kihe-kah-Steh" means "Tall Chief" in Quapaw according to this site which is a related language to Osage, but not the same. I'm finding it almost certain that “Wa-Xthe-Thoṉba” is her proper name in the Osage language, rendered in the Osage orthography as 𐓏𐓘𐓸𐓧𐓟-𐓍𐓪͘𐓬𐓘 Ornithoptera (talk) 06:56, 30 August 2023 (UTC)


 * @Ornithoptera
 * Thank you for that acknowledgement. After the greater part of three years, I actually had no recollection whatsoever of having brought up that point ;), and had to refresh my own memory from what I wrote back then. I appreciate any clarification you have provided/ will provide. Toddcs (talk) 13:29, 30 August 2023 (UTC)
 * So should 𐓏𐓘𐓸𐓧𐓟-𐓍𐓪͘𐓬𐓘 be mentioned in the article? Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 16:04, 9 October 2023 (UTC)