{"id":3810,"date":"2019-09-17T09:01:29","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T14:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=3810"},"modified":"2019-09-17T09:09:43","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T14:09:43","slug":"the-native-american-princess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/09\/17\/the-native-american-princess\/","title":{"rendered":"The Native American Princess"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whilst perusing the \u201cHearts of Our People\u201d exhibit this summer at the MIA, an exhibit featuring exclusively female Native American artists. What I found striking was a video from the early 1950s of a woman named Maria Tallchief who was in fact not in traditional regalia, but an elaborate ballet costume, pointe shoes, and dancing to Igor Stravinsky. I thought to myself, \u201cWow, a Native Ballerina? If I would have seen this video as a kid I probably never would have quit ballet.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0y_tWR07F7Y?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;start=103&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The findings of Densmore as well as of the explorer&#8217;s accounts we read in class point to a correlation between Native Americans and dance. I would find it safe to say that not all of the dances Densmore recorded, let alone what those who made first contact saw, made it to the 21st century in their original form due. The role of the U.S. government in intentionally trying to vanish Native Americans, leading to the \u201cVanishing Indian\u201d sentiment which eventually evolved into what Rebekah Kowal refers to as the Termination Era (early-mid 20th century), created the environment out of which Tallchief had her start. The article that caught my eye was titled, \u201cAmerican as Wampum\u201d and was published in TIME magazine in 1951 following her performance with the New York City Ballet Company in Balanchine\u2019s adaption of Firebird [1]. The article claims she was produced by the same era that created Shirley Temple and that:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cOnstage, Maria looks as regal and exotic as a Russian princess; offstage, she is as American as wampum and apple pie.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3811\" style=\"width: 163px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-16-at-10.12.21-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3811\" class=\"wp-image-3811 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-16-at-10.12.21-PM-153x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"153\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-16-at-10.12.21-PM-153x300.png 153w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-16-at-10.12.21-PM-77x150.png 77w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-16-at-10.12.21-PM.png 221w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 153px) 100vw, 153px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3811\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taken from TIME Magazine<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The discussion of her lineage only mentions that her father was a full-blooded member of the Osage tribe [1], further exoticizing her and leaving out the fact that her mother had European heritage: Scotch, Irish, Dutch [2]. It is possible that the author of the article simply didn\u2019t know that Tallchief was mixed-race but I find it more likely that her choice in self-identifying primarily with her Native heritage contributed to her fame and success as the first American Prima Ballerina. Her image, both literal and social, is another aspect of her life I found compelling. It was her front page of Newsweek that crowned her, \u201cthe finest American-born ballerina the twentieth century had ever produced\u2026\u201d [2]. The use of a literal crown in both articles, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Newsweek <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Time, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0the image of the \u201cNative American Princess\u201d. This brings us back to depictions of the idealized Native woman, the peace bringer such as Pocahontas, a <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-8.52.13-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3812 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-8.52.13-AM-226x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-8.52.13-AM-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-8.52.13-AM-113x150.png 113w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-8.52.13-AM.png 397w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a>role model of femininity and what was called civilization, integration, or assimilation[3]. Toll argues that the trope Tallchief embodies is more complicated than simply playing the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">civilized Indian <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in that her achievement of being the first-ever<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> American Prima Ballerina, that she was a creator of western culture rather than an \u201cassimilated Princess\u201d [3].<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nWorks Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[1] \u201cAmerican as Wampum.\u201d TIME Magazine, vol. 57, no. 9, Feb. 1951, p. 78. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&amp;db=tma&amp;AN=54161559&amp;site=ehost-live.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[2] Kowal, Rebekah J. \u201c\u2018Indian Ballerinas Toe Up\u2019: Maria Tallchief and Making Ballet \u2018American\u2019 in the Tribal Termination Era.\u201d Dance Research Journal, vol. 46, no. 2, 2014, pp. 73\u201396., doi:10.1017\/S0149767714000291.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Toll, Shannon. \u201cMaria Tallchief, (Native) America\u2019s Prima Ballerina: Autobiographies of a Postindian Princess.\u201d Studies in American Indian Literatures, vol. 30, no. 1, 2018, pp. 50\u201370, https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/692228.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whilst perusing the \u201cHearts of Our People\u201d exhibit this summer at the MIA, an exhibit featuring exclusively female Native American artists. What I found striking was a video from the early 1950s of a woman named Maria Tallchief who was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/09\/17\/the-native-american-princess\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3324,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-Zs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3810"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3818,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions\/3818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}