We’wha, a Lhamana (Zuni Two Spirit) individual, took on both male and female tasks as a Zuni cultural ambassador and pottery and textile artist. Also a spiritual leader, We’wha endeavored to preserve the history, traditions, and knowledge of the Zuni people.
An entrepreneur, advocate, and member of the Blackfoot Nation, Elouise Pepion Cobell (“Yellow Bird Woman”), fought tirelessly for government accountability and for Native Americans to have control over their own financial future. During her life, she won countless awards, founded the first Native American owned bank, and successfully won a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Government.
Wilma Mankiller is honored and recognized as the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She is also the first woman elected as chief of a major Native tribe. She spent her remarkable life fighting for the rights of American Indians.
At the age of 17, Maria Tallchief moved to New York City to pursue her dreams of becoming a dancer. She went from dance company to dance company looking for work. Many of the companies discriminated against her because of her Native American ancestry. Rejection did not stop Tallchief; she continued working towards her goal and eventually became one of America’s most popular ballerinas.
Susette La Flesche Tibbles, an Omaha woman, spent her entire life tirelessly campaigning for Native American rights as a speaker, activist, interpreter, and writer.
Marjorie Tallchief was a ballerina from the Native American Osage Nation, and was the first Native American to be “première danseuse étoile” of the Paris Opera Ballet and performed with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas.
The lone survivor of an ill-fated scientific expedition, this Iñupiat woman survived for two years on Wrangel Island, remote arctic island north of Siberia.
Edna Moscelyne Larkin Jasinski was one of the “Five Moons”, Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma who gained international fame in the 20th century, along with Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower and sisters Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief. After dancing with the Original Ballet Russe and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, she and her husband moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1956 they founded the Tulsa Ballet and its school. The Tulsa Ballet became a major regional company in the American Southwest and made its New York City debut in 1983.
Rosella Hightower was an American ballerina who achieved fame in the United States and Europe. Along with Yvonne Chouteau, Moscelyne Larkin, and sisters Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief, she was one of the “Five Moons”, Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma who gained international fame in the 20th century.
A Tonkawa woman called “Texas Tonk” served as a U.S. Army scout in 1872; she rode out with soldiers from Fort Griffin and was later found dead at King’s Creek off the Brazos River.