Over 49 years after Native American Sacheen Littlefeather was booed off stage at the 45th Academy Awards, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has formally apologised to the actress and civil rights activist. Nearly 50 years after suffering racist insults and abuse, Littlefeather will now return to the Academy as an invited guest of honour at the Academy Museum.
In making the announcement, the Academy Museum shared a letter sent to Littlefeather by David Rubin, the academy president, in June. Rubin called Littlefeather’s speech “a powerful statement that continues to remind us of the necessity of respect and the importance of human dignity”. However, it took the academy over 49 years to realise this.
The abuse Littlefeather suffered took place at the 1973 Oscars when she represented Marlon Brando to decline his Oscar for Best Actor. Ahead of the ceremony, Brando was the overwhelming favourite to win the Oscar having given one of the greatest ever performances in cinematic history as Don Corleone in Francis Coppola’s classic ‘The Godfather’. Anticipating his award, Brando decided to make a statement about the state of Native Americans from one of the biggest stages in the world.
Brando asked then-26-year-old Littlefeather to decline the Oscar on his behalf and to share that he can’t accept the award due to the racist stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans in the movie industry and also over the happenings at Wounded Knee in 1973.
In a strictly timed 60 seconds speech, since she was threatened with arrest if she exceeded that time, Littlefeather stated that Marlon Brando “very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award, and the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry, and on television, in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee.”
Brando had shared an 8-page speech with Littlefeather but thanks to the threat of arrest, she condensed it into 60 seconds and later read the entire speech in front of the press.
Even during her short 60 seconds speech, there were audible boos from the Hollywood elites in the crowd who didn’t have any time for her. Some people used the “Tomahawk chop”, a demeaning gesture to Native Americans, as she was walking by. After her speech, while she was escorted off stage, Hollywood legend John Wayne had to be restrained by 6 bodyguards because he wanted to get on stage, attack her and drag her off stage.
Later on, in the show, other presenters made it a point to take a shot at Littlefeather while presenting the awards. Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood went on stage to present the Best Film award and mocked Littlefeather, saying he was presenting the award on behalf of “all the cowboys shot in all the John Ford Westerns.” Racquel Welch, who announced the Best Actress that evening, also mocked Littlefeather’s appearance by saying, “I hope the winner doesn’t have a cause.”
Not content with abusing and mocking her, Hollywood even tried to destroy her credibility with doubts raised about whether she actually was a Native American.
For nearly 5 decades, Hollywood didn’t see anything wrong with their actions that day as they humiliated a Native American for talking about their issues just for 60 seconds. However, in this era of virtue signalling, they have decided to extend a meaningless apology to show themselves as virtuous people without actually doing anything.
While Marlon Brando’s intentions may have been noble, even he didn’t go scot-free when it came to criticism. Michael Caine, the British acting legend, who was co-host of the ceremony that day, criticised Brando for “letting some poor little Indian girl take the boos” because there was no way any Hollywood elite was ever booing Brando if he had come on stage and said the same thing himself.
