Almost 50 years ago, Littlefeather stood on stage after Brando’s award for his performance in The Godfather. Speaking for himself, he declined the statuette and instead gave a 60-second speech to raise awareness of Native American issues. “We were in a partnership at the time, because [Brando] he was very aware of the stereotype of Native American Indians in film, television and the sports industry. So do I,” Littlefeather said at the event, during a conversation with Indigenous Alliance Academy co-chair Bird Runningwater. “Praying I went up there,” he said. “I went up there like a proud Indian; with dignity, with courage, with grace and with humility.” While on stage, Littlefeather was in high spirits, cracking jokes and reminiscing about her friendship with Brando. The event featured talks and performances by Indigenous artists chosen by Littlefeather, many of whom were the children and grandchildren of her friends. The live broadcast started at 8 p.m. ET. Reading the apology letter he wrote to her in June, former AMPAS president David Rubin told Littlefeather, “the abuse you suffered because of that statement was unwarranted and unwarranted.” “You are forever respectfully rooted in our history,” he added. Littlefeather, who is Apache and Yaqui, was just 26 when Brando — her boyfriend and that year’s award frontrunner for his portrayal of mob boss Vito Corleone — asked her to attend the ceremony on his behalf and refuse the award. When Brando won the award that night, Littlefeather took the stage. Brando “unfortunately cannot accept this very generous award and the reasons for that are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry,” he said. WATCHES | Sacheen Littlefeather turns down Marlon Brando’s Oscar: He also referred to the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, where a standoff between Lakota activists and US federal agents became a pivotal moment in the struggle for Native American rights. Wearing a buckskin dress and moccasins, Littlefeather addressed a divided audience, half of whom applauded and half who jeered as she spoke. She later said she was the target of racial harassment backstage, with people shouting stereotypical war cries at her, and that actor John Wayne tried to punch her in the face while she was speaking on stage. “This was the most violent act ever at the Oscars,” Littlefeather told Runningwater on Saturday. She also said that a producer of the 1973 show threatened her, telling her that if she spoke for more than 60 seconds, she would be arrested and put in jail. Brando had given her an eight-page speech to read and she was forced to improvise. “See, I wasn’t under any pressure that night,” he joked. Littlefeather, an actress at the time, said she was blacklisted from Hollywood and harassed for years after speaking out. “I wasn’t representing myself. I was representing all the Indigenous voices out there, all Indigenous people, because we’ve never been heard in this way before,” she told the audience. “If I had to pay the price of admission, then that was all right. Because those doors had to be opened.” In these screenshots taken from a live video of the event, Sacheen Littlefeather discusses her experience at the 1973 Academy Awards and its aftermath with Bird Runningwater, co-president of the Indigenous Alliance Academy. (Academy Museum of Motion Pictures/YouTube)
