Sacheen Littlefeather (Apache/Yaqui/Ariz.) is a Native American actress who performed at the 1973 Academy Awards, Marlon Brando won’t accept his oscar godfather, died. she was 75 years old.
Littlefeather died at noon Sunday at her home in Novato City, Northern California, surrounded by loved ones, according to a statement sent by her caretaker. Reconciliation with Little Feather June and hosted a celebration In her honor just two weeks ago, she revealed the news on social media Sunday night.
Littlefeather revealed that she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in March 2018 and has recently metastasized.
Brando decided to boycott March 1973. oscar 200 members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) marched thousands in South Dakota to protest how Native Americans were portrayed on screen and to pay tribute to the ongoing occupation at Wounded Knee. Face off against the U.S. Marshal and other federal agents. city.
After hosts Liv Ullman and Roger Moore nominated him for Best Actor and Ullman called Brando’s name as the winner, the telecast cut to Little Feather, and then, at 26, the traditional Apache. Dressed up, she walked from her seat in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to the stage. As the announcer explained, “Accepting the Marlon Brando award, godfatherMiss Satchen Littlefeather.
However, Littlefeather raised his right hand on the podium, declined the statuette Moore presented him, and told Chandler’s audience and the 85 million viewers watching at home that Brand “won’t be honored with this very generous award.” I am very sorry that I cannot accept it.”
Speak in a low-key tone, but speak quickly — Bland, who told her not to touch the trophy, gave her a typed eight-page speech. The American Indian treatment of .
Littlefeather’s remarks were met with slight boos and applause in the building, but public opinion in the immediate aftermath of her appearance was largely negative. His father was Apache and Yaqui and his mother was white) and claimed to have borrowed costumes for the ceremony, but conservative celebrities such as John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Charlton Heston have made many film appearances. were three actors who starred in Westerners — Reportedly criticized Bland and Littlefeather’s actions.
As she was becoming an indelible part of Oscar lore, Wayne “was ready to take me off the stage,” she said. los angeles times “He had to be detained by six guards.” survey showed.
Anyway, nearly 50 years later, the Academy has issued an apology to her.
“The abuse you suffered because of this statement was unjustified and unjustified,” then-AMPAS president David Rubin wrote to her in a letter dated June 18. Irreparable. The courage you showed went unrecognized for too long. We deeply apologize for this and express our sincere respect to her. ”
“I was stunned. I never thought the day would come when I would hear this and experience this,” said Littlefeather. Said hollywood reporter. “When I stood on the podium in 1973, I was alone.”
Born Marie Louise Cruz on November 14, 1946 in the coastal city of Salinas in northern California, Littlefeather was raised primarily by her maternal parents. She began exploring her Indigenous identity at California State University in Hayward, and in 1969 she participated in the Native occupation trying to retake Alcatraz.
Shortly thereafter, Littlefeather received a full scholarship to study acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. ‘Dancing and acting was escapism,’ she said of native american times in 2010.
She got several jobs in radio and television advertising (including Miss Vampire USA) dark shadow “Americans liked the look of blonde Sandra Dee…the reason I got speaking roles in Italian films was because they liked the exotic.”
In 1972 she joined the plan playboy A shot called “Ten Little Indians” that was scrapped before its release when the occupation of Wounded Knee began in February 1973. playboy It printed her photo as a stand-alone feature, further discrediting her in the eyes of some.
She first met Brand several years ago when she was in Washington giving a presentation on race and minorities to the FCC.
“In the 70s, there was AIM and the Indian civil rights movement and I was a part of it,” she said. “I was, so to speak, an advocate for the native-her-American stereotype in film and television. All I was saying was, ‘I don’t want Chuck Connors playing Geronimo.'”
“Marlon told me to wear a buckskin,” she said in the 2018 documentary when she told the brand she didn’t have an evening dress for the Oscars. Sashen: Breaking the Silence.
Three months after the Oscars, the brand dick cavett show And he said, “I was ashamed of Sashen. She couldn’t say what she wanted to say, maybe it was directed at me, but people booed and whistled and kicked their feet.” I was stomping and I was in pain. They should have at least had the courtesy to listen to her.”
Brando’s stunt had the intended effect of renewing attention to Wounded Knee, but Littlefeather says it endangered her life and killed her acting career, and she was forced to leave the guild. (Furthermore, the Academy subsequently prohibited winners from sending substitutes to accept or decline awards on their behalf.)
“I’ve been blacklisted. Or you could say ‘I’ve been redlisted,'” Littlefeather said in the documentary. “Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and others didn’t want me on the show. … The door was slammed shut and never opened.”
Littlefeather has managed to appear in a handful of films (Billy Jack’s Ordeal, Johnny Firecloud When winter hawk She quit acting altogether and earned a degree in Holistic Health from Antioquia College, where minors studied Native American Medicine. He has written health columns, taught a traditional Indian medicine program at St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson, Arizona, and worked with Mother Teresa for AIDS patients in the Bay Area. She was a founding member of the American Indian AIDS Institute in San Francisco.
Littlefeather also continued his involvement in the arts, co-founding the non-profit National American Indian Performing Arts Registry in the early 1980s, advising on multiple PBS programs, and being an advocate for the inclusion of Native Americans in Hollywood. continued (she appeared in the 2009 documentary). reel injun).
“I was the first woman of color to make a political statement in the history of the Academy Awards,” Littlefeather said. sachenand at the time, Coretta Scott King and Cesar Chavez were among the few people to publicly admire their Oscar speeches.
But over the decades, her onstage advocacy has proven to herald a conversation about diversity in Hollywood that continues today, and Jada Pinkett Smith even voted to boycott the 2016 Academy Awards. I cited her as an inspiration for the (#OscarsSoWhite ceremony).
At the time, the two exchanged emails and Smith wrote:
Littlefeather will be buried next to her husband Charles Kosiway (Otoe/Sack & Fox) in Red Rock, Oklahoma. Kosiway died in November 2021 from blood cancer. The two met 32 years before her at a powwow at the University of California, Davis.
“The night before we met, I had a dream that I was introduced to this handsome Indian man. He wore a white Stetson cowboy hat and spoke with a very soft Oklahoma accent. “How is the yew?” she said THR In August. “The next day my roommate and I drove to the powwow at the University of California, Davis, and this white Stetson his cowboy Under his hat was a very handsome Indian man. He was the first What he did was put on his hat, look me in the eye and say,How is the yew? That’s all. the man of my dreams. “
Following the Academy’s apology, Littlefeather said of her late husband: And two weeks before her death, when she took the Academy stage for the second time in her life, at a museum celebration in her honor, she announced that her own death was imminent. I knew there was And you know, I’m not afraid to die. Because we are from our/our/our society. We are not from my/my/my own society. And we learn to give from an early age. We give when we are honored. “
A Catholic Requiem Mass for her will be held this month at St. Rita’s Church in Fairfax, California, followed by a reception. Littlefeather American Indian Children’s Resource Center of Auckland.
In her final public appearance, she spoke again on behalf of all Indigenous peoples. I need and deserve to hear this apology tonight. Look at each other and be proud that we all stand as survivors. Always remember that when I am gone, whenever you stand up for your truth, you will keep my voice alive, and that of our nations and our people.