2023 Sacagawea Native American Dollars Maria Tallchief

Description

2023 Sacagawea Native American Dollars Maria Tallchief
POSITION A – Edge lettering reads upside-down when the Sacagawea Portrait faces up
POSITION B – Edge lettering reads normally when the Sacagawea Portrait faces up
Obverse
Design retains the central figure of the Sacagawea design first produced in 2000 with the inscriptions LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition as an interpreter and guide during their exploration of the Western United States.
Reverse
The 2023 reverse side features Maria Tallchief in balletic pose. Tallchief was America’s first major prima ballerina, and she and her husband, George Balanchine, transformed American classical ballet. In addition to Tallchief, four other American Indian ballerinas from Oklahoma achieved international recognition in the 20th century, including her younger sister Marjorie Tallchief, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, and Moscelyne Larkin. Celebrated as the Five Moons, their legacy of achievement and inclusion continues to influence ballet today. A nod to the Five Moons is presented in the lunar motif, while the four ballerinas in the background are symbolic of both Tallchief’s American Indian ballerina contemporaries and the generations of dancers they inspired. Inscriptions are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, MARIA TALLCHIEF, $1, and AMERICAN INDIANS IN BALLET.