Marie Tallchief Thesis

Heritage doesn’t say anything about you and what you do. Heritage just tells you where you ancestors came from and what your back ground is. Your acts and your achievements to tell us something about you. Betty Marie Tallchief was faced with prejudice and hatred but she overcame it.

During the 1920s and 1930s being a Native America was very hate because you were a different skin color than a normal person skin color which was White but that didn’t affect Marie. When Marie started to dance, she became special to the people of the dancing world but people they weren’t in the dancing world disliked her because she was Native American, as stated on lines 18-20. When Marie and her family moved to California from the reserve in Oklahoma, she became a victim of prejudice because she teased and bullied because of her heritage and her last name, which was Tallchief, stated on lines 19-22. When people stated to single out Marie for being Native American, it didn’t affect or lesson her pride in being a Native American, stated on lines 23-24. Even though Marie faced prejudice when she was young, she overcame it and didn’t care what people thought of her.
She became Prima Ballerina of the New York City Ballet and was the first American in a century to dance for the Paris Opera Ballet, as told on lines 34-35. In 1953, President Eisenhower honored Maria by naming her “Woman of the Year”, the state of Oklahoma declared June 29 “Maria Tallchief Day”, and the Osage Tribe gave Marie the name Wa-Xth- Thonba meaning “Woman of two Worlds”, as stated on lines 36- 39 Her most famous performance was in the Russian Folktale ballet called The Firebird, as stated on line 43. Even though people are struck down by prejudice and hatred some don’t get back up but some do like Marie and follow their dreams not caring what people say about