Littlefeather’s Oscar moment

Sacheen Littlefeather was the star of one of the most surprising moments in the history of the Oscars, said Steve Rose in The Guardian (U.K.). At the 1973 awards ceremony, Marlon Brando was announced as the winner of the Best Actor category for his performance in The Godfather. But rather than Brando, it was Littlefeather—then 26 and wearing a buckskin dress—who took to the stage. The Native American activist told the audience, and the 85 million people watching at home, that Brando was rejecting the award to protest “the treatment of American Indians by the film industry.” Her speech drew a mix of applause and boos; backstage, people made stereotypical war cries at her and mimed tomahawk chops. Littlefeather had ended up at the Oscars by happenstance. After hearing Brando speak about Native American rights, she got his address from Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, a neighbor in San Francisco. She sent Brando a letter and the two became friends—though never lovers as some have claimed. “He was my mother’s age, for God’s sake!” Brando wrote her an eightpage speech to read at the Oscars, but on the night of the event she was told she’d be limited to 60 seconds, forcing her to improvise. “I didn’t raise my voice,” says Littlefeather, now 74 and battling terminal breast cancer. “But I prayed that my ancestors would help me. I went up there like a warrior woman. I spoke from the heart.”