Marlon Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor on March 27, 1973 for his performance in The Godfather, but that evening, the renowned actor did not take the stage. Sacheen Littlfeather, an Apache and Yaqui actor and activist, took his place.
She seriously said that Brando could not accept the prize because of the “abuse of American Indians today by the film industry” while donning a buckskin attire and moccasins.
Some spectators began to applaud. Others made jeers.
Why did Sacheen Littlefeather decline the Oscar on behalf of Marlon Brando?
In a 60-second speech, she explained that Brando could not accept the award due to “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.”
Some audience members heckled her. Backstage at the time, John Wayne was allegedly incensed. The American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee in South Dakota for two months at the time of the 1973 Academy Awards.
Littlefeather claimed that since then, people have made fun of her, treated her unfairly, and even assaulted her personally because of her brief Academy Awards participation.
