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.
The Lady of Cao is a nickname given to a female Moche mummy discovered in 2005 at the El Brujo archeological site about 45 km north of Trujillo in Peru’s La Libertad Region.
Alba Roballo was a prominent Afro-Uruguayan lawyer, poet and politician, who was Uruguay’s first woman Cabinet member, first woman Culture Minister, and first woman elected to the (then collective) Municipal Council of Montevideo, Uruguay.
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.
Mama Ocllo was a princess and queen consort (Coya), of the Inca Empire
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.