Maria Tallchief was the first native-American

Native Americans

The term Native Americans may refer to:In its broadest sense, the entirety of the indigenous peoples of the American continents:*Indigenous peoples of the Americas...

 prima ballerina

Ballerina

A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...

. From 1942 to 1947 she danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was a ballet company created by members of the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1938 after Léonide Massine and René Blum had a falling-out with the co-founder Wassily de Basil...

, but she is best known for her time with the New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...

 from 1947 to 1965.
Her full name was Elizabeth Maria Tallchief; her family called her Betty Marie. She was born in Fairfax

Fairfax, Oklahoma

Fairfax is a town in Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,380 at the 2010 census, down 11.3 percent from 1,555 at the 2000 census.-History:...

, Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 to a father who was a chief in the Osage Nation

Osage Nation

The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...

 and a Scots-Irish

Ulster-Scots

The Ulster Scots are an ethnic group in Ireland, descended from Lowland Scots and English from the border of those two countries, many from the "Border Reivers" culture...

 mother.

Of her childhood she wrote, "I was a good student and fit in at Sacred Heart (Catholic school).