• She was only given 60 seconds to read her message for Native American rights at the Oscars before being dragged off stage to the jeers of the audience.
• There was a media blackout on Wounded Knee and the American Indian Movement that was occupying there at that time in 1973.
• “The media boycott would end as soon as they saw me up on stage declining the Academy Award for the stereotypes in the film business and addressing Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

 According to the Academy of Motion Pictures, Sacheen Littlefeather, a Native American activist who declined Marlon Brando’s Oscar for “The Godfather” on his behalf at the 1973 Academy Awards, passed away on Sunday at the age of 75.

According to accounts, she had breast cancer.

Littlefeather received an apology from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in June for how she was treated that evening at the Oscars.

On September 17, Littlefeather went to the Academy Museum to see the apology in person.

She was only given 60 seconds to read her message for Native American rights at the Oscars before being dragged off stage to the jeers of the audience.

Littlefeather addressed the Academy Awards crowd, saying, “He very reluctantly cannot receive this very great prize.”

And the reasons for this include how American Indians are treated in the media today, including in movie reruns on television and the recent events at Wounded Knee.

Born Marie Louise Cruz in Salinas, California, Littlefeather developed a passion for Native American problems in college and took part in the occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1970, when she took on the moniker Littlefeather.

She supposedly met Brando, who was interested in Native American concerns, through Francis Ford Coppola, who like Littlefeather lived in San Francisco, after graduating from college. She then joined SAG.

Littlefeather recently discussed what it was like to attend the Oscars on Brando’s behalf in an interview with a news portal.

I had never attended the Academy Awards before. By assuring Marlon Brando that I wouldn’t touch that Oscar, I overcame my first obstacle. But as I left the stage, I did so with bravery, honor, elegance, decency, and honesty. I accomplished it in a manner similar to that of Indigenous women and my ancestors.

“I was called at by people who gave me the stereotypical tomahawk chop, but I disregarded them all. I carried my head high and was pleased to be the first Indigenous woman in the history of the Academy Awards to make that political statement as I continued to walk straight ahead with a couple of armed guards by my side.” There was a media blackout on Wounded Knee and the American Indian Movement that was occupying there at that time in 1973. They watched the Academy Awards after Marlon had called to ask them to do so in advance.

“The media boycott would end as soon as they saw me up on stage declining the Academy Award for the stereotypes in the film business and addressing Wounded Knee in South Dakota.”

“Sacheen Breaking the Silence,” a documentary about her life and work, was published in 2021.

Little feather said that she was blacklisted in Hollywood after the Oscars, despite having a few tiny roles in movies like “The Trial of Billy Jack,” and she then moved back to San Francisco to continue her advocacy and work in theatre and healthcare

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