Washoe County Library System

In broad outline it sounds like a fairy tale: the daughter of a full-blooded Oklahoma Osage Indian and a determined Scots-Irish mother, Maria became one of the world's legendary performers before her twenty-third birthday. Hers is a story of passion and commitment, an unvarnished memoir that trembles with the joys and rigors of a dancer's life - a woman who, like Colette, Coco Chanel, or Maria Callas, understood that a committed talent could transform...

A biography of the Osage Indian ballerina whose love of dance took her from a life on a reservation to a career on the stage.

"A biography of Maria Tallchief, part of the She Persisted chapter book series. When she was told that she might need to change her Osage name to one that sounded more Russian in order to succeed as a professional ballerina, Maria Tallchief refused and worked hard to become America’s first Native American prima ballerina."--

Profiles the lives of thirteen American women who have left their mark on U.S. history, including Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Margaret Chase Smith, and Oprah Winfrey.