Maria Tallchief

Maria Tallchief (1925–2013) was America’s first prima ballerina. A “prima ballerina” is the foremost, most central dancer in a ballet company. Of Osage descent (a Native American people), she rose to become a world-renowned dancer in the United States, which had not been regarded as a homeland of ballet.

The reverse of the coin depicts Maria Tallchief in a ballet pose, bathed in a spotlight. Beside her, her Osage name is written in the Osage script; the name carries the meaning “Two Standards.” It is an image in which the dancer on stage and the name of her own roots are placed side by side.

The graceful posture beneath the spotlight directly conveys the world of ballet to which she devoted her whole life. The Osage name inscribed alongside tells us that even after becoming a supreme dancer, she never forgot where she came from.

As a Native American and a woman, she had to overcome prejudice and hardship to reach the world stage. Through her outstanding talent she surmounted those barriers to become a ballerina representing the United States, proving with her whole being that someone of Native descent too could stand at the summit of art.

Gazing at her beneath the spotlight on the coin, with her name in the Osage script, one is reminded of the life of a person who rose to the summit of the stage while remaining proud of her roots. Maria Tallchief is still honored today as a pioneer of American ballet.