Osage Ballerina Maria Tallchief Dies

AP via NPR

I saw the news on Twitter yesterday that Maria Tallchief had died last Thursday. Tallchief was the first Native American prima ballerina of any major ballet company in the world, at a time when few Americans of any race could compete with Russian dancers. She married choreographer George Ballanchine and danced for his New York City Ballet, where he created most of her signature roles just for her.

Tall Chief was born in the Osage Nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s at the peak of the Osage tribe's wealth from oil production on their reservation, not far from the town where I spent my middle-school years. We learned about her and the other "Five Moons" dancers in school as I was growing up. The Five Moons were five famous Indian ballerinas who were all born in Oklahoma and went on to dance for world class companies.

Maria's sister Marjorie Tallchief danced for the Paris Opera. Yvonne Chouteau, a Shawnee-Cherokee from Vinita, OK, danced for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and founded the Oklahoma City Ballet. Rosella Hightower, a Choctaw from Durwood, OK, also danced for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and was the director of several French city ballet companies, including the Ballet de l'Opera National de Paris. Moscelyne Larkin, born in Miami, OK, of Peoria and Shawnee heritage, danced for the original Ballet Russe and founded the Tulsa Ballet Theatre. They are depicted in a mural by Mike Larsen, who is of Chickasaw descent, at the Oklahoma State Capitol Building entitled Flight of Spirit. All five danced together in 1967 in a performance of Louis Ballard's (also an Oklahoman, of Quapaw and Cherokee heritage) The Four Moons ballet, which honors them.

Flight of Spirit

Yvonne Chouteau was once quoted in an interview, "The Indian people are very artistic as a whole. We are also very non-verbal, and so I think dance is a perfect expression of the Indian soul."

Moscelyne Larkin, Marjorie Tallchief, Maria Tallchief, Rosella Hightower, Yvonne Chouteau with Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating in 1997.

Marjorie Tallchief and Yvonne Chouteau are now the only surviving members of the Five Moons. They are a national treasure and part of the beauty of my home state's history and culture. Rest in peace, Maria Tallchief.

 

Saturday in the City

Last Saturday, Cousin Elizabeth, Auntie Amy, and Grandpa joined us for a little trip to the bustling metropolis. We took the girls to Quincy Market to have lunch at Durgin Park and then walked over to the Boston Common to run amok. It was unfortunately probably the last really cold day of the season, but children apparently can't feel cold, so they didn't care. They had big fun and cried when it was time to go home. Come back to Boston when the weather warms up, Little E!

Durgin Park, a Boston tradition since 1827

Eating butter! So silly.

Watching the shoppers in Quincy Market

Boston Common

Tadpole Playground next to the Frog Pond

Foofa and Maggie

No, it's Elizabeth!

The Carousel was up and running already!

Kate's horse was named Menunia. (Minoonya?) Maggie's cat was named Kitty.

It was a fun day out with their best little buddy.

Katie Sez...

(As we pull into a parking space outside the bank, preparing to go in, which we almost never do in these days of ATMs and online banking...)

... are we going in to rob it?

Tu(n)esday

Yeah!

Queens of the Stone Age's new album, ...Like Clockwork, comes out June 4th. You can hear the studio version of "My God is the Sun" if you follow that link, too.

Katie Sez...

... Did you do knitting karate when you were younger?

Me: Knitting karate?! Uh, no. What is that?

Kate: It's where you knit something *mimes knitting* and then you fight someone *karate moves*.

Me: Where did you hear about that?

Kate: On the Littlest Petshop cartoon.

Me: I think that was just supposed to be a joke. It's not a real thing.

Kate: Seriously?! *disappointed face*

Me: Sorry. Did you want to us to sign you up for knitting karate classes?

Kate: (embarrassed) No.

Notes from the Nightstand: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

I'm a fan of Sherman Alexie. I've written on this blog about his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and about Smoke Signals, the movie that is based on the short stories in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. He's an amazing writer and an important voice in American literature and culture. He has things to say that someone really needed to come along and say. He has important stories to tell about all of us.

Having seen Smoke Signals a couple of times and having read other work by Alexie (he publishes short fiction in the Stranger), I wasn't completely bowled over when I read this book. It felt like well-trodden ground, although I was interested to see how he put the stories together on paper rather than on screen. It's much more chopped up and jumpy than the film, of course, because there needed to be a full-length, linear narrative for a movie to make sense. The short stories contain the same characters and some scenes, but it's less concise. Given that this book was Alexie's first, I think a lot of forgiveness is in order.

One of my favorite stories was "Because My Father Always Says He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Woodstock." I loved the idea that Victor's father was a huge Jimi Hendrix fan because Jimi's warped, rock 'n roll version of the national anthem spoke to him as an outsider American.

"After all the shit I'd been through," my father said, "I figured Jimi must have known I was there in the crowd to play something like that. It was exactly how I felt."

The story, like most of the stories in the book, focuses on the father-son relationship, particularly when the father leaves.

On a reservation, Indian men who abandon their children are treated worse than white fathers who do the same thing. It's because white men have been doing that forever and Indian men have just learned how. That's how assimilation can work.

And yet the father and son connect through music and the stories they tell about it and the memories that are tied to it, as so many people do.

Those were the kinds of conversations that Jimi Hendrix forced us to have. I guess every song has a special meaning for someone somewhere. Elvis Presley is still showing up in 7-11 stores across the country, even though he's been dead for years, so I figure music just might be the most important thing there is. Music turned my father into a reservation philosopher. Music had powerful medicine.

As a whole, it's not a perfect book. There are noticeably weak parts jammed in between the jewels. But, if you're curious about Alexie's point of view and his style, then it's worth reading. If you haven't read anything else by him before and are looking for a place to start, it's worth reading (although I still would probably start with True Diary unless you just hate YA). Some people also just can't get into magical realism as a genre, although a lot of the stories are just really real realism, and poignantly so. If you are curious about what real Indians are like in modern day life, Sherman Alexie is the man to see. He doesn't pull any punches, fistfighting in heaven or down here in America.

Easter Pics

I promised to post some photos of the girls in their Easter dresses (that's a story for another post!), but there were so many it was hard to choose just a few for the blog. I'll put the rest up at Snapfish, if you just can't get enough!

Jane's amazing princess castle cake for Elizabeth's third birthday! Maggie helped put the marshmallows on.

Dying Eggs

Waiting patiently for the perfect shade

Saturday night we had a fire in the fireplace. The girls wanted to sit right up close and be cozy.

Looking fancy

These are their "We're finished having our picture taken" faces.

Sunglasses were a must, according to Kate and Elizabeth.

Yep, there was still snow on the ground in NH! Good thing the eggs were bright colors.

Maggie in the woods, her natural habitat.

Sorting her treats, of course!