- Los Angeles, USA, 27 March 1973. At the Oscar award ceremony, the award for the best male actor was for Marlon Brando for her work at The Godfather. But Brando refused to pick up the statuette and instead climbed the stage by Apache entrepreneur Sacheen Littlefeather, dressed in traditional costumes, and read a statement denouncing the treatment of the countries of origin in the United States.
Among the jokes of many actors and filmmakers gathered at the Oscars, Sacheen Littlefeather said that Hollywood belittled and criminalized the countries of origin on March of 1973, remembering the occupation started a month earlier at Wounded Knee.
In 1890, the American army committed a massacre at the Pine Ridge Reserve in South Dakota. 83 years later, the United States Government called for its behaviour to be improved with the countries of origin and for them to be complied with at least as agreed up to then. Specifically, one of the main objectives of the mobilization was to denounce the corruption and abuse practices of tribal president Richard Wilson.
The occupation lasted 71 days, two activists were killed and the occupants failed to achieve the immediate goal, Wilson continued in office, and in 1974 he won again elections for fraud and threats. Consequently, in the coming years, violence against the natives increased in the Pine Ridge Reserve, particularly by the private militia of Wilson, ignored by those responsible outside the reserve. According to the Indian American Movement (AIM), for three years there were 64 cases of unresolved murder in the reserve, while according to the FBI only four cases were unclosed.
And yet, Marlon Brando's gesture influenced both negative and positive. The refusal to give up the Oscar was a certain diversion of attention, especially when information about the entrepreneur Sacheen Littlefeather began to emerge.
Brando and the other personalities drew journalists to the reserve and, under the eyes of the Americans and other countries of the world, hindered the violent intervention of the army.
Public message
Littlefeather (born Marie Louis Cruz 1946-2022) was an activist and actress, who by her father talked about apaches, yaki and ancestors of village peoples. But all his relatives denied him by saying that the family had its origin in Mexico, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Among others, the leaders of the Apache tribe refuted what Littlefeather said. Therefore, for those who did not want a real message to be given, Marlon Brando hired an actor to conquer the struggle (and costume) of the people of origin.
But the message somehow spread. Although Marlon Brando’s gesture got more echo, other personalities joined the occupants: singer Johnny Cash, activist Angela Davis, actress Jane Fonda, lawyer William Kunstler, journalist Tom Wicker… This protection brought the issue of the people of origin to public opinion and had not helped to improve the immediate perception.
But at least they managed to avoid an immediate and negative measure, according to AIM- acknowledged: Brando and the other personalities drew journalists to the reserve and, in the eyes of the Americans and other countries of the world, made it difficult for the army to intervene violently. In other words, the resignation of the Oscar helped prevent the second massacre at Wounded Kne.