Brando, Littlefeather and the Academy Awards
By Dina Gilio-Whitaker
The social turbulence of the 1970's was a time of great and much-needed change in Indian country. Native American people were in the bottom strata of all social indicators, and it was clear to American Indian youth that the change was not going to happen without dramatic action. By March of 1973 the Alcatraz Island occupation was two years in the past, Indian activists had taken over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building the year before, the siege of Wounded Knee was underway in South Dakota, and the Vietnam War showed no end in sight despite massive protests. No one was without an opinion and certain Hollywood stars are remembered for the stand they would take, even if unpopular and controversial. Marlon Brando was one of them.
American Indian Movement
AIM coalesced out of the frustration of Native American college students in the cities and activists on the reservations who understood all too well the conditions they were living under were a result of oppressive government policies. Drastic problems called for drastic actions and although attempts were made at non-violent protest (the year and a half long Alcatraz occupation was completely non-violent), there were times when violence seemed like the only way to get the attention that was needed.
Tensions came to a head on the Pine Ridge reservation in February 1973 when a group of heavily armed Oglala Lakota and their American Indian Movement supporters overtook a trading post in the town of Wounded Knee, the site of the 1891 massacre of 300 Lakota men, women and children. Demanding regime change of the United States- backed tribal government which had been terrorizing citizens, resulting in dozens of uninvestigated murders on the reservation, the occupiers found themselves in a 71-day armed battle against the FBI and United States Marshal Service with the eyes of the nation watching every night on the evening news.
Marlon Brando: Civil Rights and the Academy Awards
Brando had a long history of supporting various social movements, dating back to at least 1946 when he supported the Zionist movement for a Jewish homeland. He had also participated in the March on Washington in 1963 and supported the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, even donating money to the Black Panthers. In later years he became critical of Israel and supported the Palestinian cause.
Brando was also highly critical of the way Hollywood treated American Indians and the way they were represented in the movies. When he was nominated for an Oscar for the role of Don Corleone in "The Godfather," he refused to attend and instead sent Sacheen Littlefeather (born Marie Cruz), a young Apache/Yaqui activist who had participated in the Alcatraz Island occupation, and a budding model and actress, to represent him. When his name was announced as the winner she went on stage dressed in full native regalia and delivered a short speech on behalf of Brando declining acceptance of the award. He had written a 15-page speech explaining his reasons, but Littlefeather would recount later that she had been threatened with arrest if she attempted to read the entire speech. Instead, she was given 60 seconds in which all she could say was:
"Marlon Brando has asked me to tell you, in a very long speech which I cannot share with you presently-because of time-but I will be glad to share with the press afterward, that he must... very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award.
"And the reason [sic] for this being... are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry… excuse me… and on television in movie re-runs, and also the recent happenings at Wounded Knee.
"I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will, in the future...our hearts and our understanding will meet with love and generosity.
"Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando."
The crowd cheered and booed. The speech was shared at a press conference after the ceremony and was published in its entirety in the New York Times.
The Speech
In 1973 Native Americans had virtually no representation in the film industry and were primarily used as extras while lead roles depicting Indians in several generations of Westerns were almost always given to white actors. Native film scholars have identified different phases of the predominant stereotypes that were perpetuated in Hollywood films since their advent in the late 1800's (see the film "Reel Injuns" for an in-depth look at Native American stereotypes in the film industry). Brando's speech addressed these stereotypes, at a time long before the subject would be taken seriously in the industry:
"Perhaps at this moment you are saying to yourself what the hell has all this got to do with the Academy Awards? Why is this woman standing up here, ruining our evening, invading our lives with things that don't concern us, and that we don't care about? Wasting our time and money and intruding in our homes.
"I think the answer to those unspoken questions is that the motion picture community has been as responsible as any for degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing his as savage, hostile and evil. It's hard enough for children to grow up in this world. When Indian children watch television, and they watch films, and when they see their race depicted as they are in films, their minds become injured in ways we can never know."
But true to his political sensibilities, Brando also minced no words about America's treatment of American Indians:
"For 200 years we have said to the Indian people who are fighting for their land, their life, their families and their right to be free: 'Lay down your arms, my friends, and then we will remain together...
"When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did. For them, we do not have to restore these people, we do not have to live up to some agreements, because it is given to us by virtue of our power to attack the rights of others, to take their property, to take their lives when they are trying to defend their land and liberty, and to make their virtues a crime and our own vices virtues."
Littlefeather
As a result of her intervention at the Academy Awards, Sacheen Littlefeather received phone calls from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s widow Coretta Scott King and Ceasar Chavez congratulating her for what she'd done. But she also received death threats, was lied about in the media (including allegations that she wasn't Indian), and was blacklisted in Hollywood. Yet, her speech made her famous literally overnight and her fame would be exploited by Playboy magazine. In 1972 Littlefeather and a handful of other Native American women had posed for Playboy but the photos had never been published until October 1973, not long after the Academy Awards incident. Because she had signed a model release she had no legal recourse to contest their publication.
Littlefeather has long been an accepted and highly respected member of the Native American community despite lingering speculation about her identity. She continued her social justice work for Native Americans from her home in the San Francisco Bay area. She worked as an advocate for Native American AIDS patients, did other health education work, and worked with Mother Theresa doing hospice care for AIDS patients.
