50 Years Ago, an Indigenous Woman Was Vilified at the Oscars. She Finally Got Her Apology

At the 1973 Oscar Awards, 26-year-old Sacheen Littlefeather made cinema history by walking on stage to decline the coveted Best Actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando for his role in The Godfather. After the actor Liv Ullmman declared Brando as the winner (beating out Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Peter O’Toole, and Paul Winfield), a strong male voice announced over the speakers: “Accepting the award for Marlon Brando in the Godfather, Ms. Sacheen Littlefeather.”

Littlefeather rose from the audience as the melancholy soundtrack from The Godfather played throughout the cavernous and elegant Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The ceremony was notably the first to be televised internationally via satellite and an estimated 85 million viewers tuned in. In traditional Native American dress with her long black hair parted down the middle, Littlefeather’s appearance was incongruous with the typical evening gowns and tuxedos filling the venue as she walked to the stage. As she approached the podium, the actor Roger Moore leaned in to present the golden Oscar statue to Littlefeather. Instead of taking hold of the award, she held up her right hand and paused, signaling, “No.”

And with a simple gesture, Sacheen Littlefeather lit a fuse that would impact the rest of her life.

Roger Moore, momentarily unsure, looked at Littlefeather and asked “No?” while shaking his head to mimic the question. He and Ullman politely stepped aside to allow Littlefeather the microphone. The applause quickly died down as the audience sensed the confusion unfolding.

“Hello, my name is Sacheen Littlefeather,” she said. Her eyes scanned the audience in front of her, rapidly assessing her surroundings. Watching the original footage on YouTube, a slight sense of nervousness is visible in her eyebrows. Her voice is soft-spoken but clear and firm. “I’m Apache and I am president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee …”

In a brief, yet historic, 75-second plea, Littlefeather told the audience that Brando was boycotting the ceremony and could not accept the award. “He 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 and on movie reruns,” she said, to both boos and applause from the audience. Littlefeather also referenced the then-recent Wounded Knee Occupation, during which proponents of the American Indian Movement occupied the South Dakota town of Wounded Knee to protest the continual mistreatment of Native Americans. She asked the audience for sympathy and compassion for the cause, concluding with, “I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening, and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity.”

After her speech, John Wayne allegedly tried to attack her offstage, but was held back by six security guards. Littlefeather later said that she faced other personal and professional attacks, including the federal government dissuading any productions that put her on air after her speech brought renewed attention to Wounded Knee, which the FBI had imposed a media blackout over. Later that week, when Littlefeather visited Brando’s house, bullets were fired into the front door as she stood nearby.

Recently, however, the Academy tried to make things right. In June 2022, the then-Academy President, David Rubin, sent Littlefeather a letter, privately presented to her by Academy Museum Director Jacqueline Stewart, apologizing for the treatment she faced nearly 50 years ago. “For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged,” he wrote. “For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.” In the letter, Rubin also wrote, “Today, nearly 50 years later, and with the guidance of the Academy’s Indigenous Alliance, [the Academy is] firm in our commitment to ensuring indigenous voices—the original storytellers—are visible, respected contributors to the global film community.”

Unfortunately, the much-delayed apology did little to help Littlefeather, whose career was affected by the incident. According to IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, Littlefeather was credited with two acting roles in 1973, followed by a scant five roles over the next five years. Her last credited role (as “Navajo Woman”) was in the 1978 Western called Shoot the Sun Down. Littlefeather continued her work in activism and became a founding member of the Red Earth Indian Theater Company in Seattle, advised in PBS’s 1984 Dance in America: Song For Dead Warriors, which received an Emmy award, and appeared in the 2009 Peabody Award-winning film Reel Injun to discuss her experience at the 45th Oscars.

The reaction to Littlefeather’s stand at the Oscars, however, makes sense in the context of how the media portrayed Native Americans leading up to that time. Some of the earliest portrayals of this group came from the blatantly racist director D.W. Griffith, who is best known for his 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, which overflowed with racist stereotypes of African Americans after the Civil War. Griffith’s 1913 short film, “The Battle of Elderbush Gulch,” is similarly bigoted toward Native Americans. IMDb describes the plot as “The fact that an Indian tribe is eating puppies starts an action-packed battle in a Western town.”

The representation of Native Americans in the media has improved little. The 2022 Hollywood Diversity Report cited Native American representation at only 0.6% in film, although Indigenous people compose 6.8 million individuals across 574 federally recognized tribes and make up 2.1% of the American population. Other minority groups experienced growth, albeit minor, in on-screen representation in recent years — between 2016 and 2021, nonwhite film roles grew from 30% to 43% and the Asian, Latinx, and Black share of roles rose from 3.1% to 6.4%, 2.7% to 7.7%, and 12.5% to 18%, respectively. But Native American representation has remained relatively stagnant. Native American representation in creative roles such as director and writer were found to be virtually nonexistent.

Going forward, Native American advocates call for not only representation, but authentic, accurate representation as Indiginous cultures have historically and recurrently been misportrayed through ignorant stereotypes. For example, the 2015 parody The Ridiculous Six was noted for its offensive and inaccurate stereotyping. While filming The Ridiculous Six, starring comedian Adam Sandler, a number of Native American cast and crew members walked off the set due to the problematic, offensive script riddled with slurs and tribal inaccuracies. Allison Young, a Navajo actor, said that when they complained, the producers responded, “If you guys are so sensitive, you should leave.” Young told CNN that the film’s cultural advisor was the first to leave, and she and some of the cast followed. In a statement, Netflix defended the movie as “a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only part of — but in on — the joke.” Sandler told The Associated Press that the walkout was a “misunderstanding and once the movie is out, it will be cleared up.” In a later statement to ScreenCrush, Sandler added that “there’s no mocking of American Indians at all in the movie.” The movie tanked after release, receiving an audience score of 35% on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 18%.

On the other hand, there have been examples of good representation in recent years: 2021’s Reservation Dogs and even the 2022 science fiction film Prey (from the Predator movie franchise) received positive reviews for their portrayals of Native American characters and communities. Reservation Dogs is a milestone show created by all Indigenous writers. The Guardian article praised the show as a “a stereotype-smashing, Tarantino-esque triumph,“ adding, “The fact that Native Americans were for so long depicted on screen as stereotypical sexy squaws, warring ‘injuns’ or gnomic spirit guides makes this a long overdue milestone.” The series is being praised for its ability to portray the complexities of Indigenous identity in a modern Native American community.

Prey, the newest movie in the Predator franchise, released in early August, depicts the Comanche Nation in a fight against a technologically advanced alien hunter as well as colonial forces. The movie was called a “groundbreaking achievement” by A Tribe Called Geek founder Johnnie Jae, who said the film "is a rare tribute to the indigenuity, strength, and sheer stubbornness that has allowed Native people to survive the forces that threaten our survival."

When Stewart presented the letter of apology and commendation to Littlefeather, Littlefeather told her that “I never stood up onstage in 1973 for any kind of accolades. I only stood there because my ancestors were with me, and I spoke the truth.” Three minutes later, having processed the letter a bit more, Littlefeather took a moment to acknowledge the current Native American filmmakers and artists, including Reservation Dogs actor Wes Studi and creator Sterlin Harjo, that are making critical progress in Hollywood.

She then began to cry, holding the letter close to her chest. “Yes, there’s an apology that’s due. As my friends in the Native community said, it’s long overdue.”

Along with the Academy’s written apology to Littlefeather, the institution will be hosting a museum event, An Evening with Sacheen Littlefeather, on September 17 honoring Littlefeather which will also include a Indigenous land acknowledgment. The Academy described the event as a “conversation, reflection, healing and celebration.”

In an August 15, 2022 interview with the Hollywood Reporter about the Academy’s apology, Littlefeather said, “I was stunned. I never thought I’d live to see the day I would be hearing this, experiencing this … When I was at the podium in 1973, I stood there alone.”