Maria Tallchief, America's first prima ballerina, now featured on U.S. quarters

A prima ballerina with a Colorado connection is now featured on the face of a U.S. quarter.

Driving the news: The late Maria Tallchief — considered the country's first prima ballerina and one of the most notable Native American figures of the 20th century — was selected as one of two dozen people to be included in the U.S. Mint's American Women Quarters Program.

• Her coin was released in late October.

Of note: Although Tallchief was born in Oklahoma's Osage Nation, her dancing career kicked off in Colorado.

• At age 3, she began ballet classes in the basement of the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, according to the first chapter in her 1997 autobiography.
• "What I remember most is that the ballet teacher told me to stand straight and turn each of my feet out to the side, the first position. I couldn't believe it. But I did what I was told," she wrote.