In a memoir/letter he wrote about the Osage, those Native Americans who influenced him so profoundly as a boy in Oklahoma, he wrote about the chief of Gray Horse, Tall Chief. Below is an excerpt.
Tall Chief
Fairfax, where I attended school in the third to sixth grades (1915-19), is four miles from Gray Horse. Many Osage families lived in Fairfax and one of my classmates was an Indian boy named Tall Chief.
Do you remember that the chief of the Gray Horse group in 1872 was named Tall Chief? It seems likely that my classmate was a grandson of the 1872 chief.
About 1960 Ed Sullivan had a beautiful young Indian lady on his popular TV show who was one of the premier ballerinas of the time. Her name was Maria Tall Chief. After she finished her performance, Sullivan said, "I am sure the people of her native Fairfax, Oklahoma, are proud of her."
My classmate (Tall Chief) and I were born about the same time: I have children in the same age group as Maria Tall Chief; do you suppose my classmate sent his daughter to an eastern school and she took up ballet? Could be!
Immediately after reading this at my desk, curious, I tapped "maria tall chief" into the google search and up popped a plethora of images and articles for the prima ballerina Maria Tall Chief. I could only imagine the delight my grandfather would have had at instantly learning that Maria "was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma to a father who was a chief in the Osage Nation and a Scots-Irish mother." and that the family moved to California in the 30s where she learned to dance and that Maria later moved to New York to further her career.
No comments:
Post a Comment