The Maria Tallchief Barbie pays homage to the Native American who rose to international fame as the prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet. The doll wears the outfit Tallchief wore in the iconic 1949 New York Ballet production of "The Firebird." Mattel collaborated with Tallchief’s daughter and the Osage Nation. As part of the tribute, Mattel is donating to the Center for Native American Youth through the Barbie Dream Gap Project, an initiative supporting Native youth in their health and well-being. 

Maria Tallchief was born in 1925 on the Osage Indian reservation in Oklahoma, to a Native American father and Scotch-Irish mother. As a child, she studied with celebrated ballerina Bronislava Nijinska and moved to New York City at age seventeen to pursue a career in dance. There she met the choreographer George Balanchine and became a founding member of his New York City Ballet. Tallchief and Balanchine were married from 1946 to 1952. After her retirement from the stage, the ballerina moved to Chicago, where she was appointed ballet director of the Lyric Opera and founded the Chicago City Ballet. She died in 2013 at age 88.

Tallchief joins a list of women honored in the Barbie Inspiring Women…