Studi to take stage as Oscar presenter
Native American actor based in Sante Fe has 80-plus film, TV credits
When Cherokee actor Wes Studi of Santa Fe takes the stage Sunday at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles to present an Oscar, he will be one of only a handful of Native Americans to take part in the big event in its 90-year history.
Studi, 70, who took a few moments from packing one morning earlier this week for a phone interview with The New Mexican, said, “It’s actually very exciting for me. It’s the first time I have been on a big stage like the Oscars. I feel honored to be part of the party which is the Academy Awards.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not keep track of Oscar presenters, but it lists three Native Americans, all from Canada, who have received award nominations, including Graham Greene in 1991 for Dances with Wolves, Chief Dan George in 1971 for Little Big Man and musician Buffy SainteMarie in 1983 for the song “Up Where We Belong,” featured in An Officer and a Gentleman. Sainte-Marie won the Oscar that year.
Humorist Will Rogers, who, like Studi, was of Cherokee heritage, hosted the awards in 1934.
Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather appeared
at the Oscars in 1973 at the request of Marlon Brando to announce that he was rejecting a best actor award for his performance in The Godfather. Brando was protesting the way Native Americans were portrayed in films.
Studi grew up in Oklahoma and joined the National Guard as a teenager. In 1967, he was drafted into the Army, according to an online biography, and served in the Vietnam War. He did not start acting until he was in his 40s.
Since then, Studi has appeared in more than 80 film and TV productions, including Dances with Wolves in 1990, The Last of the Mohicans in 1992 and Avatar in 2009. In 2002, Studi played Lt. Joe Leaphorn in a PBS series based on Tony Hillerman’s novels and produced by Robert Redford. The three specials, released between 2002-04, were set in Navajo and Hopi lands.
Studi said he sees his invitation to participate in the Academy Awards ceremony as “an acceptance of my participation in the business over a number of years.”
The invitation also is a sign of something larger, he said: “It’s a time when we’re all hopefully embracing the diversity of the world we live in.”
He told the Los Angeles Times that when he watched TV as a child, “there was one real Indian that we all recognized … and that was Jay Silverheels. We saw him on a weekly basis [as Tonto] on The Lone Ranger.”
Asked by The New Mexican if he foresees increasing roles for Native Americans in TV and film productions, Studi said, “I can’t answer that. … It’s possible.”
Pam Pierce, who has worked with Studi and his wife, Maura Dhu Studi, through her Silver Bullet Productions, said Wes Studi also has been involved in Native American activism, participating in protests at Wounded Knee in South Dakota and Standing Rock in North Dakota.
Studi narrated and appeared in Silver Bullet’s 2017 documentary Defending the Fire, which depicts the changing perception of the Native American warrior through time.
The film “asks you to question Why Fight,” Pierce said in an email, “and asks you to discard the stereotypes and look at the complex truth in the answer to why native Americans fight from the wars of 1500s, through the Pueblo Revolt, Indian wars, World Wars and modern conflicts.”
Defending the Fire was filmed in New Mexico with the help of Native American leaders, veterans and scholars.
Studi and his wife hold workshops on tribal lands to teach children filmmaking, acting and directing, Pierce said.
“He’s so humble,” she added, “it’s not something he talks about.”
Hollywood award ceremonies have lately become de rigueur platforms for political statement and protest — but not for Studi.
“I don’t intend to do that,” he said. “I am not receiving any kind of award. … My function at the awards is as a presenter.”
Asked what category he was presenting for, Studi said, “I am actually not allowed to divulge that.”
The actor and his wife flew west Thursday afternoon in preparation for the show, which will be broadcast live Sunday evening on ABC’s Albuquerque affiliate, KOAT-TV Channel 7.
“I hope we have a lot of viewers in New Mexico and the Southwest,” Studi said.