24 STANDING IN TWO WORLDS

One night in May 2013, the Constantine Theater, in

Pawhuska, was scheduled to show a video recording of a
performance of the Osage ballet Wahzhazhe. The Osage have long
been linked to the world of classical dance, having produced two of
the greatest ballerinas, the sisters Maria and Marjorie Tallchief.
Maria, considered America’s first major prima ballerina, was born
in Fairfax in 1925. In her autobiography, she recalled the oil riches
and observed that her Osage father seemed to own the town: “He
had property everywhere. The local movie theater on Main Street,
and the pool hall opposite, belonged to him. Our ten-room, terra-
cotta-brick house stood high on a hill overlooking the reservation.”
She also recalled that a house nearby had been “firebombed and
everyone inside killed, murdered for their headrights.”

Wahzhazhe chronicled the sweeping history of the Osage,
including the period of the Reign of Terror. Wahzhazhe means
“Osage.” I was eager to see the ballet, even if it was only a
recording of one of the performances, and after buying a ticket, I
headed into the Pawhuska theater where Mollie and Ernest
Burkhart had once sat in the velvety chairs and where the oil
barons had gathered for auctions during bad weather. In the early
1980s, the theater had been on the verge of demolition, but a
group of local citizens volunteered to restore it, clearing away
spiderwebs and vermin, polishing the brass plates on the front
door, and removing layers of gunk on the lobby floor to reveal a
mosaic in the shape of a star.