Sacheen Littlefeather
Marie Louise Cruz, known as Sacheen Littlefeather, is an Apache actress and activist for Native American rights. On March 27, 1973, she represented Marlon Brando at the 45th Academy Awards to decline the Best Actor award for his performance in The Godfather. The favorite to win, Brando boycotted the ceremony in protest of Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans and to draw attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee. During her speech, the audience was divided between jeers and applause.
Half-Native American and half-white, Littlefeather had sought to become an actress. She was involved in the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz and learned about her heritage. After the Academy Award speech, she worked in hospice care, continued activism for a number of health-related and Native American issues, and produced films about Native Americans.
Early life and career
Sacheen Cruz Littlefeather was born Marie Louise Cruz on November 14, 1946, in Salinas, California. Her mother was a leather stamper from Phoenix, Arizona, of French, German, and Dutch descent. Her mother and two sisters were subject to their father’s rage & beatings. Her father was born in the desert and is from the White Mountain Apache and Yaqui tribes. The couple moved to California while her mother was pregnant. They opened up their own business. "Cruz Saddlery" and her parents are also remembered in Salinas Valley. She was primarily raised by her maternal grandparents, Marie and Barney, and was Catholic as a child. Sometimes she lived with her mother; she recalls a trip through Mississippi when she was told to use the "black" water fountains and a sign that read, "No Dogs or Indians Allowed".While she attended California State College at Hayward, she continued to look into her Native American identity. In Oakland, she worked with the Intertribal Friendship House. In 1969, she became a member of Indians of All Tribes and participated in the occupation of Alcatraz, when she adopted the name Sacheen Littlefeather. She learned more about Native American customs from elders and other protesters.
On a full scholarship to the American Conservatory Theater, she began acting education. Aspiring to become an actress, Littlefeather picked up several radio and television commercial credits and joined the Screen Actors Guild. In 1970, she was named Miss Vampire USA, a promotion for Dark Shadows.
Playboy magazine planned a spread called "10 Little Indians" in 1972, and one of the models was Littlefeather, but Playboy editors cancelled its publication due to the Wounded Knee incident. A year later in October 1973, after her Academy Award appearance fame, they ran the photographs of Littlefeather as a stand-alone feature. Littlefeather was personally criticized for what was seen as exploitation of her fame. Looking back at the photo shoot, Littlefeather later said, "I was young and dumb."
Academy Awards speech, 1973
Background
Littlefeather got in contact with actor Marlon Brando through her neighbor, director Francis Ford Coppola. She wrote Brando a letter, asking about his interest in Native American issues, and he called the radio station where she worked a year later. Brando had worked as an activist with the American Indian Movement since the 1960s and into the 1970s. In Washington, D.C., where Littlefeather was presenting to the Federal Communications Commission about minorities, they met and found in common their involvement with AIM.In 1972, Brando played Vito Corleone in The Godfather, which is considered one of the greatest films of all time. For the performance, he was nominated for Best Actor for the role at the 45th Academy Awards, which were presented on March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. But before the ceremony, Brando decided that – as the favorite to win – he would boycott as a protest led by AIM against the ongoing siege at Wounded Knee and his views on how Native Americans were represented in American films. He called Littlefeather and asked her to appear on his behalf. "I was a spokesperson, so to speak, for the stereotype of Native Americans in film and television," she later said.
At the ceremony
Littlefeather joined the audience minutes before the award for Best Actor was announced. She was accompanied by Brando's secretary, Alice Marchak, and wore an Apache buckskin dress. Producer Howard W. Koch, she would later say, told her that she had 60 seconds to deliver the speech or else be removed from the stage; she had planned to read a 4-page speech written by Brando.The Best Actor award was presented by actors Liv Ullmann and Roger Moore. After giving brief remarks and announcing the five nominees, they declared Brando to be the winner. Littlefeather walked on stage and raised her hand to decline the Oscar trophy that Moore offered her. Deviating from the prepared speech she clutched, she said the following:
Moore escorted Littlefeather off-stage, past several people critical of her, and to the press. At the press conference, Littlefeather read to journalists the speech that Brando had prepared; The New York Times published the full text the next day.
Later that night, before she announced the Best Actress winner, Raquel Welch said, "I hope the winner doesn't have a cause." When Clint Eastwood presented the Best Picture award, he remarked that he was presenting it "on behalf of all the cowboys shot in John Ford westerns over the years." Michael Caine, the night's co-host, criticized Brando for "Letting some poor little Indian girl take the boos" instead of " up and it himself".
Reception and legacy
The audience in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was divided between applause and jeers. Brando and Littlefeather's protest was generally considered inappropriate for the awards ceremony. "I was distressed that people should have booed and whistled and stomped, even though perhaps it was directed at myself," Brando later told Dick Cavett. "They should have at least had the courtesy to listen to her." Her appearance prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rule out future proxy acceptance of Academy Awards.Littlefeather claims that she was blacklisted by the Hollywood community and received threats. In addition, she says, media reports published several falsehoods, such as that she was not Native American or had rented the outfit for the occasion. She has said that the federal government encouraged the blacklisting in order to abate Native American activism after Wounded Knee.
The speech was credited with bringing attention back to the Wounded Knee standoff, on which a media blackout had been imposed. Coretta Scott King called Littlefeather to thank her for the speech. In 2014, the 87th ceremony of the Academy Awards drew criticism for lack of diversity in nominations; actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who boycotted the ceremony, cited Littlefeather as inspiration to do so.
Later life and career
After giving the speech, Littlefeather spent two days in Los Angeles before returning to San Francisco. When she visited Marlon Brando's house after the Academy Awards, while they were talking, bullets were fired into his front door. At age 29 her lungs collapsed, and after recovering, she received a degree in health and a minor in Native American medicine, a practice she had used to recover. Studying nutrition, she lived in Stockholm for some time and then traveled around Europe, interested in the food of other cultures. Later, she taught at St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson, Arizona, and worked with the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.In 1979, she co-founded the National American Indian Performing Arts Registry, which later helped several actors join the production of Dances with Wolves. She shared an Emmy Award as an advisor to PBS's Dance in America: Song for Dead Warriors. She also worked on the PBS shows Remember Me Forever and The Americas Before Columbus, and she has produced films on Native American health. In 2009, she gave testimony in the documentary Reel Injun about Native Americans in film.
She continued doing activism and became a respected member of California's Native American community. In the 1980s, she led prayer circles for Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American Catholic saint. In 1988, she worked with Mother Teresa helping AIDS patients in hospice care, later founding the American Indian AIDS Institute of San Francisco. She campaigned against obesity, alcoholism, and diabetes, and specifically assisted Native Americans with AIDS, including her brother.
In 2015, Littlefeather reported that unauthorized persons were using her name and image to raise money for what was ostensibly a fundraiser for the Lakota nation. However, the money was never donated to any campaign.
In March 2018, a spokesperson announced that Littlefeather had developed stage 4 breast cancer., Littlefeather resides in Northern California.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
| 1973 | Counselor at Crime | Maggie | Cameo appearace | |
| 1973 | ' | Minor role | Uncredited | |
| 1974 | Freebie and the Bean | Minor role | Uncredited | |
| 1974 | ' | Patsy Littlejohn | ||
| 1975 | Johnny Firecloud | Nenya | ||
| 1975 | Winterhawk | Pale Flower | ||
| 1978 | Shoot the Sun Down | Navajo Woman | ||
| 2009 | Reel Injun | Herself | Documentary | |
| 2018 | Sacheen | Herself | Short documentary |