Native American actress and activist displays on 1973 Academy Awards protest By Reuters



By Wealthy McKay

(Reuters) – Half a century in the past, actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage in a standard buckskin gown on the Academy Awards present to say no an Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando, launching right into a speech concerning the movie trade’s mistreatment of Native People.

She was booed off the stage of the 1973 ceremony after 60 seconds for the remarks, which drew consideration to an Indigenous individuals’s protest at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. She was then professionally boycotted by the movie trade for many years.

On Saturday night Littlefeather, now 75, was met with thunderous applause as she took the stage to replicate on her protest at an occasion in her honor on the Academy Museum of Movement Footage in Los Angeles.

“Effectively, I made it. It took 50 years,” she stated.

The occasion, “An Night with Sacheen Littlefeather” featured stay Native American performances and was streamed on the museum’s YouTube web page.

Her pal Brando boycotted the forty fifth Oscars ceremony due to the stereotypes of Native People in movies and tv. The winner of greatest actor for portraying Vito Corleone in “The Godfather” requested Littlefeather to attend in his place.

Along with the boos, Littlefeather reminisced on Saturday, individuals made tomahawk chop gestures and mocked “Indian” whoops. “Huge John Wayne was able to assault me. He needed to be held again by six safety guards,” she stated.

Saturday’s program included the studying of an apology letter to Littlefeather for her remedy by the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences.

“As you stood on the Oscars stage in 1973 to not settle for the Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando, in recognition of the misrepresentation and mistreatment of Native American individuals by the movie trade, you made a strong assertion that continues to remind us of the need of respect and the significance of human dignity,” the letter says.

She responded, “I’m accepting this apology not just for me alone, however an acknowledgement not just for me, however all of our (Native American) nation. Our nation wants to listen to this apology.”

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