>Maria Louise Cruz (November 14, 1946 – October 2, 2022), better known as Sacheen Littlefeather, was an American actress and activist for Native American civil rights. After her death, she was accused by family members and journalists of falsely claiming Native American heritage.
>Littlefeather represented Marlon Brando at the 45th Academy Awards (better known as the Oscars) in 1973, where she – on Brando's behalf – declined the Best Actor award that he won for his performance in The Godfather. The favorite to win, Brando boycotted the ceremony as a protest against Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans and to draw attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee. During her speech, the audience's response to Brando's boycotting was divided between booing and applause.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacheen\_Littlefeather](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacheen_Littlefeather)
More photos from the ceremony: [When Marlon Brando asked Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse his Oscar, 1973](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/sacheen-littlefeather-oscars-photos/)
This reminds me of the lady who lied about being black to work at the NAACP and get welfare lol
[https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-naacp-leader-rachel-dolezal-agrees-plea-deal-welfare-fraud-n991566](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-naacp-leader-rachel-dolezal-agrees-plea-deal-welfare-fraud-n991566)
Son of Paleface, Sitting Bull. Your fuckin poster boy. Part Cherokee, part Cree. Wasn't even a fuckin Indian. Second generation Sicilian from Louisiana named Espera DeCorti
I’m hispanic. I remember when I first heard about her years ago I thought she looked incredibly hispanic. Just looked at her wikipedia page and it turns out her dad was Mexican.
It's much more complicated than that: sure, the average Mexican is Mestizo (of mixed Indigenous and European heritage), but that's far from interchangeable with "Native American".
Especially considering the fact that that there are still plenty of fully indigenous Mexicans (Zapotec, Purepecha, Mayans and so on) who still embody indigenous *culture*, and still suffer from discrimination at the hands of the same Mexicans I mentioned earlier.
Sacheen Littlefeather very likely did have some indigenous heritage, but she was completely out of touch with any actual indigenous community or cultural tradition.
I could say more, but that's the gist of it.
Right, most tribes don't automatically accept you just because of your DNA, you actually have to be culturally part of the tribe, you can't just say you are for your college applications or when they are dispersing funds from the casino and then never interact with them.
The sheer amount of people who don't understand this is astonishing. All those brown people that came from Europe are gonna be pissed when they don't get the credit they deserve.
Also him being a rapist is left out a lot. I guess it's neat that he at least tried to raise awareness for native Americans but overall the dude was a shithead.
I literally can’t find anything on him being a rapist besides the scene shot for Last Tango in Paris. Although that's a shitty thing to do to someone, it doesn’t make him a rapist. Any actual sources?
I’m trying to find stuff on him being a rapist but can’t find anything. Do you have a source or did you just spread something you vaguely remember maybe reading about? Not the best thing to accuse someone of rape if there’s not something to back it up
Rumor has it that [John Wayne was so enraged](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-08-23/column-did-john-wayne-try-to-assault-sacheen-littlefeather-at-the-1973-oscars-debunking-a-hollywood-myth) that he inexplicably produced a Soviet 9K32 Strela-2 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile and aimed it at Littlefeather. It took a platoon of security guards and the personal intervention of California Governor Ronald Reagan to talk him down.
actually the latest evidence suggests that she was -- although very far back. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/sacheen-littlefeather-native-ancestry-complicated-reports-1235842678/
Thank you for enlightening us. My Nana was a lot like Littlefeather, always claiming to be native but with no living relatives that are native. I guess it is just slightly different because black people culturally don't claim somebody that necessarily passes as white so it is slightly different culturally on my side of things. So you're saying I could embrace this side of my culture and I won't be rejected by the native community?
I’m just curious, if your ancestors were Native American or American Indian, when do you officially not become native or Indian anymore ? Aren’t you always native or Indian by blood, regardless of how long ago your ancestors were lived or born ? The same with any other type of ethnicity or race . If your ancestors were Irish or English, do you just not become Irish or English by blood/DNA if they were born in the 1800s? I’m so confused about how some people go or think about this stuff .
That is a complex question that is full of some vitriol even among native tribes. Take some time to look up Blood Quantum and its history among Native American peoples. That should give you a good background on the main theme of your question.
But as I said it can be a charged conversation. A short tldr of blood quantum is that it represents the eventual extinction of "native". At least in a "legal" sense. Because we are forced to quantify how "native" we are to continue to qualify as "native".
Edit: I should go to bed but I wanted to add one more thing to this. So in the end there is a mindset of "how native are you" attached to being native american. And it is usually based off of how much "blood" you have. And that can bleed into other aspects of what people think represents us.
But this also comes from the mindset that brought you a drop of blood and you are african american. It is rediculous and not really supportable in a moral way.
Not really, it was created by and is enforced by native tribal governments, not the us government, and the level of native heritage you have to have to legally qualify as native depends heavily on the tribe in question, as they each make their own rules.
It was created by the US government (1934 Indian Reorganization Act) and is based on the similar laws dating back to the slave trade (first blood quantum law for natives was in the colony of Virginia in early 1700s).
After 150+ years, it has been ingrained in native communities (many of which experience disproportionate inequality and poverty) as a means of preserving identity. This ends up being harmful, further isolating natives from their white neighbors. Recently, there’s been a push amongst modern progressive natives to drop blood quantum usage altogether.
Short answer is that it's complicated, because DNA only tells part of the story. Familial connections and continuance of culture is more important. The more of one of these things you have the less you need of the others. Full-blooded native adopted out, raised with zero culture? Yeah you're good, but you gotta learn the culture. 1/16th native born on the rez, growing up in the culture, with known and long term family connections? You're good. 1/16th native with no living close relatives from an actual community, who grew up in a white suburb?
IMO it's not cool to call yourself native unless you do the work to learn and reconnect with your distant relatives.
Even still, someone presenting as a culture was given the go ahead by the award winner to use it to raise awareness for that culture and she was boo’d for it. I still think that’s fucked up no matter her background
I love that the big thing now is to discredit her because she wasn't Native American. She pretended to be something she wasn't in order to get more attention brought to that issue. It's not like she did it for fame and fortune... If that's what it took for proper representation and acceptance in the arts, I'm all for it. Was it dishonest? Yes. Did it help create change in Hollywood and society as a whole? I'd argue yes. What's more important?
The downside is you gave material to people to discredit the activism for the rest of time, in a way that can't be fixed. The Overton Window can shift so that booing her goes from uncouth to completely incomprehensibly hateful, but cultural shift can't make Littlefeather not a fraud.
You can see the proof in this thread. You'll never be able to mention Brando's Oscar without having to talk about how Littlefeather lied. And everyone just learning about this event for the first time will feel lied to, especially if they support the cause.
Activism simply isn't worth it if it begins from a place of credibility destroying dishonesty
On March 6, 2024, newly publicized research indicates that the late activist may have had Indigenous roots after all, citing church records showing her great-great-grandfather was listed as "Yaquis criollos de la tierra".[142]
From the wiki
Wow, that's some desperate grasping at straws. Look at her costume on stage. It would be as ridiculous as someone who's g-g-grandfather came from Japan showing up, unironically, in samurai armor to lecture people on Japanese culture.
Sure, but she still claimed an entirely different life story and conned people into inducting her into their tribe. I have a little arawak in me but I would never claim that heritage as my whole identity.
How did they rectify the situation? Giving a movie that didn’t deserve it an award for the sake of diversity doesn’t erase the struggles Native Americans have gone through in the past.
Well you’re both right.
1. They did something that recognizes Native American culture as legitimate.
2. Nothing anyone ever does will ever rectify the situation. Native Americans were so heinously decimated from every angle that there is no possible way to patch that up. Ever.
They were pretty universally portrayed as ignorant, bloodthirsty savages that stole women in the middle of the night.
Always the villain in whatever was being shown.
It's like portraying all Europeans as Vikings from the perspectives of their victims. Sure some Europeans were Vikings and sailed around raiding, raping, enslaving, and pillaging but it was a small part of all of Europe.
I will say it wasn't universal though, the stereotypes were usually the "noble savage friendly Indian" and the "bloodthirsty apaches"
I love how people forget that "American" doesn't only refer to the US citizenship/nationality and with that how indigenous people of Latin-America (non-US) are Native Americans/First Nations like the Navajo, Sioux, etc...almost as if the Navajo nation had their own version of the taco, and used many of the same ingredients the Native 'Mexicans' (Aztec, etc) used and much in the same way like tortillas and wild rice.
She certainly embellished, and likely imitated a culture distinct from her own First Nation, but the point still stands. Even if she wasn't indigenous, you don't have to be part of a culture/race/ethnic group to advocate for that group. Slavery in America wouldn't have been abolished without white people sympathizing with Black people. Ukraine would've likely been annexed by Russia if non-Ukranians weren't funding and arming Ukraine.
Same with Kelsey Asbille Chow playing Monica in Yellowstone, she has no Native American ancestry, she is Chinese American
She claims she has Cherokee ancestry but tribe issued a statement that they have no record of Chow, nor did they find any evidence that she is a descendant
Her sister has tried her hardest to discredit her. She even came to her memorial to trash talk her, until the officiant finally stood up and the sister left, yelling all the way. People can assume Sacheen lied, but they can’t say that she actually was. And why did her sister not take a DNA test herself?
Sacheen worked her whole life for the benefit of others. She did not benefit financially from that. Perhaps that should be the focus here.
At the time he believed her to be genuinely indigenous in the way that she presented herself as an activist. It didn’t turn out to be true, but that’s what was believed at the time.
Thanks Zadraaa the bot for submitting another repost to increase your karma.
Do you think with enough karma you will be a real person or influence the political atmosphere?
Bot, respond.
But he was fine with Italian Americans always being portrayed as criminals and gangsters. I mean he played a guy that went by “Godfather.” I like Brando as an actor but he was full of himself on this one I’m sorry.
Edit: so racist tropes against Indians are horrible but “meh” for Italian people? Interesting.
The Godfather, a movie directed by an Italian American, written by an Italian American, played by Italian American actors, is racist against...Italian Americans.
Italian-Americans didn't have genocide inflicted upon them and have their land stolen for 500 years. Not to mention Italian-Americans have a federal holiday dedicated to the Italian man who helped usher in their subjugation.
Why are you grouping all people together? All Native Americans are not the same. They didn’t all like each other nor did they all agree with the approach of how to handle Europeans. They were not all peaceful or violent.
I wasn’t trying to do the persecution Olympics or cry about “oh why are people who look like me always portrayed as thugs and criminals” I just think it is a little ironic Brando would do a protest about racial/ethnic stereotypes while winning an Oscar for a character who is a racial/ethnic stereotype. I guess he didn’t think he would get another opportunity. If you guys don’t recognize that then you are being purposefully obtuse.
By the way, I don't think it's controversial to note that Native Americans had no agency in their portrayal in film versus whereas Italian-Americans did. If you don't think that matters, then you're also being purposefully obtuse.
Last time I checked, the two most widely known mobster movies, The Godfather and Goodfellas were written and directed by Italian-American men. Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese. If there's a stereotype, it was perpetuated by Italian-Americans themselves.
In the early-mid 1900s, with all the Westerns that portrayed Native Americans as mindless savages and villians, do you think those characters were written by Native Americans or white screenwriters in Hollywood?
FWIW, Sacheen Littlefeather was a fraud, but she was indigenous, Native American: Mexican. Her claim to be Apache is ironic considering the Mexica (Mexicans) and Apache were mortal enemies. Geronimo's hatred of Mexicans is well documented.
Those denigrating John Wayne as a "racist" against Native Americans would do well to note that two of his wives were Latin American women: one Mexican and another was Peruvian. The story about him becoming enraged during the Oscars is a lie.
yeah he was actually really mad because he was wearing a pride flag pin and a shirt underneath that said “the future is female” and it got totally overshadowed by this
🎉 That John Wayne anecdote never gets old—imagine the headlines if that had gone down! Bet Reagan's cool demeanor helped defuse what could've been a classic Hollywood face-off.
I’m confused by what she’s exactly referring to. Westerns? Native Americans attacking whites who encroached on their lands? Native Americans as “savage”?
Ok, there were many westerns that showed the main star being very friendly and/or respecting the NA tribe in the movie. Particularly a lot of John Wayne westerns show John being friends with the natives. He was also a part of a tribe in 1 or 2 films (adopted). Many times, the main character conflicted with the other whites to defend the native Americans (Source: I’ve seen basically every decently well known western possible. Watched them with my dad and grandpa. It’s all grandpa watched)
When looking at the Natives attacking the white settlers. That was a well documented occurrence. Also, it was warranted! If an invading force pushed into your land, wouldn’t you defend yourself and attack them as well?
On the topic of Natives being “savage”. While it sounds derogatory, there are several reasons to lead one to that conclusion. Native Americans were very far behind technologically. Also, the raids and attacks on families and farms was seen as brutal. Native Americans, LIKE EVERY CULTURE BEFORE THEM, would pillage a settlement, kill the men, enslave the women and children, and rape the women. This is an ugly and unfortunate part of history…. But literally part of every civilization. The Mongols did this, and the Persians, and the Romans, and the French, and the Russians, and the British, and… you get the point. Also, their society was structured completely different than the settlers, or with ours today. I’m not saying it was a bad thing… but conflicted with our understanding of how we should live together.
Native American people today, and NA historians will tell you about the proud warrior heritage of the Native Americans…. They can’t be “proud warriors” and also peaceful pacifists. It’s not disrespectful to say they killed lots of people (whites and other Native Americans) and fought many wars. The world worked differently in the past. No one is clean from the stains of war. But in the past, it was seen as honorable and courageous to be a skilled and successful warrior.
TLDR: Native Americans, like ALL other cultures of history were (at times) brutal and violent. However, many westerns portrayed them in a positive or neutral light. What’s the problem?
Idr who it was but I think I remember hearing that either John Wayne or Clint Eastwood had to be restrained from attacking her while she was giving her speech.
Brando did things like this that make me feel like he was ahead of his time. And then I hear about him and the infamous butter scene and IDK what to think.
The cause for why the Oscar was rejected was a good one. The savage American Indian, the Asian that always ran a dry cleaning service or Chinese food restaurant etc. in American films was a valid point.
As for going after Cruz days after her death, is more telling. They should have dealt with the issues for good while she was alive. Waiting for her to die and not defend herself does not help their argument in my eyes.
Everyone remember:
It was Marlon Brando who rejected the Oscar.
It was Marlon Brando who picked Cruze to speak on his behalf.
It was Marlon Brando who went on Dick Cavet to defend his actions.
https://youtu.be/UBE19iiZe84?si=tyFpqACp4k_c0oSs
Why everyone is attacking Cruze amazes me. First, if she had .0005% of American Indian blood in her then she is an American Indian. Was it not accepted in the past that if you had any Black lineage then you were Black? So if they attacked her while she was alive she would have won. But who cares - this was all about Brando.
Brando also participated in Civil rights marches for Black people. Is that invalidated because he is white?
She was boo'd (and cheered) at the Oscars before being mocked by Clint Eastwood and almost accosted by John Wayne simply for asking that Indigenous people not to be dehumanized in film.
Rejected his Oscar and let a phony “Indian” make a big speech.
It would be like [thinking these people were actual Indians](https://youtu.be/Ee21xCx0Hb4?si=j_KCEqDbHon9fsz_)
There should be a BINGO card for whenever this event gets mentioned. Things that drown out the context and good intentions.
Free center space: "But she wasn't actually Native American".
Other squares: First celebrity virtue signalling, John Wayne went berzerk, Marlon Brando was a rapist etc
>Maria Louise Cruz (November 14, 1946 – October 2, 2022), better known as Sacheen Littlefeather, was an American actress and activist for Native American civil rights. After her death, she was accused by family members and journalists of falsely claiming Native American heritage. >Littlefeather represented Marlon Brando at the 45th Academy Awards (better known as the Oscars) in 1973, where she – on Brando's behalf – declined the Best Actor award that he won for his performance in The Godfather. The favorite to win, Brando boycotted the ceremony as a protest against Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans and to draw attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee. During her speech, the audience's response to Brando's boycotting was divided between booing and applause. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacheen\_Littlefeather](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacheen_Littlefeather) More photos from the ceremony: [When Marlon Brando asked Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse his Oscar, 1973](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/sacheen-littlefeather-oscars-photos/)
With his Oscar being accepted by a person portraying a Native American
Man, I bet Iron Eyes Cody shed a tear at that.
Is this irony
Does it *feel* like a coincidence that I invoked the, by far, most famous fake native american in popular history?
Elizabeth Warren has entered the chat!
proud to be clueless
MTG has entered the chat?
This reminds me of the lady who lied about being black to work at the NAACP and get welfare lol [https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-naacp-leader-rachel-dolezal-agrees-plea-deal-welfare-fraud-n991566](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-naacp-leader-rachel-dolezal-agrees-plea-deal-welfare-fraud-n991566)
This is an underrated and unappreciated comment. I cried laughing. You won the Internet for me today
Thanms
It’s like knowing James Caan isn’t Italian.
I ate da north
He was Sicilian or Italian I believe?
Yes, Sicilan. He was born Espera Oscar de Corti.
Son of Paleface, Sitting Bull. Your fuckin poster boy. Part Cherokee, part Cree. Wasn't even a fuckin Indian. Second generation Sicilian from Louisiana named Espera DeCorti
I’m hispanic. I remember when I first heard about her years ago I thought she looked incredibly hispanic. Just looked at her wikipedia page and it turns out her dad was Mexican.
Mexican is still technically native American.
It's much more complicated than that: sure, the average Mexican is Mestizo (of mixed Indigenous and European heritage), but that's far from interchangeable with "Native American". Especially considering the fact that that there are still plenty of fully indigenous Mexicans (Zapotec, Purepecha, Mayans and so on) who still embody indigenous *culture*, and still suffer from discrimination at the hands of the same Mexicans I mentioned earlier. Sacheen Littlefeather very likely did have some indigenous heritage, but she was completely out of touch with any actual indigenous community or cultural tradition. I could say more, but that's the gist of it.
Right, most tribes don't automatically accept you just because of your DNA, you actually have to be culturally part of the tribe, you can't just say you are for your college applications or when they are dispersing funds from the casino and then never interact with them.
You have to be on the scrolls
Same with Judaism. You aren’t purely Jewish by blood, but by community.
Isn’t the average Mexican only like a third indigenous or so?
I think its very regional. Some regions are mostly european DNA, some mostly native.
The sheer amount of people who don't understand this is astonishing. All those brown people that came from Europe are gonna be pissed when they don't get the credit they deserve.
Have you seen a Native American person? You have and youve probably thought they were Mexican
Turned out her great great grandfather was native of the tribe she claimed. I’m in no place to tell someone they aren’t native enough.
Yea, they always forget that part for some reason .
Also him being a rapist is left out a lot. I guess it's neat that he at least tried to raise awareness for native Americans but overall the dude was a shithead.
I literally can’t find anything on him being a rapist besides the scene shot for Last Tango in Paris. Although that's a shitty thing to do to someone, it doesn’t make him a rapist. Any actual sources?
No lol just making shit up to feel like they're doing something. This is why we'll never have free healthcare.
I’m trying to find stuff on him being a rapist but can’t find anything. Do you have a source or did you just spread something you vaguely remember maybe reading about? Not the best thing to accuse someone of rape if there’s not something to back it up
And they boo’d her when accepting it. John Wayne had to be stopped from going on stage he was so mad
... They didn't know she wasn't Native American. That was just racism
Rumor has it that [John Wayne was so enraged](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-08-23/column-did-john-wayne-try-to-assault-sacheen-littlefeather-at-the-1973-oscars-debunking-a-hollywood-myth) that he inexplicably produced a Soviet 9K32 Strela-2 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile and aimed it at Littlefeather. It took a platoon of security guards and the personal intervention of California Governor Ronald Reagan to talk him down.
Thanks for sharing that. I always thought that story was true. It was a pretty common Hollywood story even pre-internet.
She must had been really hot to become a valid target of an IR seeking surface-air missile
Just slightly hotter than John Wayne’s temper.
It was a Cruz missile
Thanks for playin
Clint Eastwood’s follow up comment was so low-class. What a tool
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Whoa, take 'er easy there, Pilgrim. That’s the same link I have in my comment.
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think you got yourself there bud
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Wanabi tribe actually
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actually the latest evidence suggests that she was -- although very far back. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/sacheen-littlefeather-native-ancestry-complicated-reports-1235842678/
She's as native as me, barely at all. My last living direct relative is like 1835, and hers was the early 1800s, neither one of us are "native"
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Well that's pretty racist but maybe I only think that because I was educated "wrong".
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Thank you for enlightening us. My Nana was a lot like Littlefeather, always claiming to be native but with no living relatives that are native. I guess it is just slightly different because black people culturally don't claim somebody that necessarily passes as white so it is slightly different culturally on my side of things. So you're saying I could embrace this side of my culture and I won't be rejected by the native community?
She descended from a tribe in Mexico. Keeler is problematic af and accuses so many actual natives of not being native.
I’m just curious, if your ancestors were Native American or American Indian, when do you officially not become native or Indian anymore ? Aren’t you always native or Indian by blood, regardless of how long ago your ancestors were lived or born ? The same with any other type of ethnicity or race . If your ancestors were Irish or English, do you just not become Irish or English by blood/DNA if they were born in the 1800s? I’m so confused about how some people go or think about this stuff .
That is a complex question that is full of some vitriol even among native tribes. Take some time to look up Blood Quantum and its history among Native American peoples. That should give you a good background on the main theme of your question. But as I said it can be a charged conversation. A short tldr of blood quantum is that it represents the eventual extinction of "native". At least in a "legal" sense. Because we are forced to quantify how "native" we are to continue to qualify as "native". Edit: I should go to bed but I wanted to add one more thing to this. So in the end there is a mindset of "how native are you" attached to being native american. And it is usually based off of how much "blood" you have. And that can bleed into other aspects of what people think represents us. But this also comes from the mindset that brought you a drop of blood and you are african american. It is rediculous and not really supportable in a moral way.
So in a sense blood quantum is just another tool created by the government to facilitate the genocide across generations?
Not really, it was created by and is enforced by native tribal governments, not the us government, and the level of native heritage you have to have to legally qualify as native depends heavily on the tribe in question, as they each make their own rules.
It was created by the US government (1934 Indian Reorganization Act) and is based on the similar laws dating back to the slave trade (first blood quantum law for natives was in the colony of Virginia in early 1700s). After 150+ years, it has been ingrained in native communities (many of which experience disproportionate inequality and poverty) as a means of preserving identity. This ends up being harmful, further isolating natives from their white neighbors. Recently, there’s been a push amongst modern progressive natives to drop blood quantum usage altogether.
Short answer is that it's complicated, because DNA only tells part of the story. Familial connections and continuance of culture is more important. The more of one of these things you have the less you need of the others. Full-blooded native adopted out, raised with zero culture? Yeah you're good, but you gotta learn the culture. 1/16th native born on the rez, growing up in the culture, with known and long term family connections? You're good. 1/16th native with no living close relatives from an actual community, who grew up in a white suburb? IMO it's not cool to call yourself native unless you do the work to learn and reconnect with your distant relatives.
She was as native as my left nut and every native person I've ever met hates people like her.
There are native Americans in this thread defending her
Yeah, and I think she’s related to Elizabeth Warren - the senator from Massachusetts . 😂
Repost this to /r/IndianCountry and see how that goes for you.
She wasn't even Native American rofl
Even still, someone presenting as a culture was given the go ahead by the award winner to use it to raise awareness for that culture and she was boo’d for it. I still think that’s fucked up no matter her background
I love that the big thing now is to discredit her because she wasn't Native American. She pretended to be something she wasn't in order to get more attention brought to that issue. It's not like she did it for fame and fortune... If that's what it took for proper representation and acceptance in the arts, I'm all for it. Was it dishonest? Yes. Did it help create change in Hollywood and society as a whole? I'd argue yes. What's more important?
Also remember the people booing her didn’t know she wasn’t native…
The downside is you gave material to people to discredit the activism for the rest of time, in a way that can't be fixed. The Overton Window can shift so that booing her goes from uncouth to completely incomprehensibly hateful, but cultural shift can't make Littlefeather not a fraud. You can see the proof in this thread. You'll never be able to mention Brando's Oscar without having to talk about how Littlefeather lied. And everyone just learning about this event for the first time will feel lied to, especially if they support the cause. Activism simply isn't worth it if it begins from a place of credibility destroying dishonesty
She wasn’t just booed, John Wayne had to be physically restrained from going on stage to beat her up.
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Huh, darn I guess I fell for it.
On March 6, 2024, newly publicized research indicates that the late activist may have had Indigenous roots after all, citing church records showing her great-great-grandfather was listed as "Yaquis criollos de la tierra".[142] From the wiki
Wow, that's some desperate grasping at straws. Look at her costume on stage. It would be as ridiculous as someone who's g-g-grandfather came from Japan showing up, unironically, in samurai armor to lecture people on Japanese culture.
Sure, but she still claimed an entirely different life story and conned people into inducting her into their tribe. I have a little arawak in me but I would never claim that heritage as my whole identity.
…and it only took Hollywood and the Academy another 50 years to truly rectify the situation.
How did they rectify the situation? Giving a movie that didn’t deserve it an award for the sake of diversity doesn’t erase the struggles Native Americans have gone through in the past.
Well you’re both right. 1. They did something that recognizes Native American culture as legitimate. 2. Nothing anyone ever does will ever rectify the situation. Native Americans were so heinously decimated from every angle that there is no possible way to patch that up. Ever.
none of that was caused by brando's oscar rejection...
Love the message, dis-love that she was a pretendian…😏
Mexicans are Native Americans, detached or detribalised, they are still Native to the continents.
And dress in buckskins and headdresses... 🙄
With a watch on the hand… so much about colonial distress
"You're native therefore you shouldn't be allowed to tell time"
She was cute
How were they portrayed?
They were pretty universally portrayed as ignorant, bloodthirsty savages that stole women in the middle of the night. Always the villain in whatever was being shown.
It's like portraying all Europeans as Vikings from the perspectives of their victims. Sure some Europeans were Vikings and sailed around raiding, raping, enslaving, and pillaging but it was a small part of all of Europe. I will say it wasn't universal though, the stereotypes were usually the "noble savage friendly Indian" and the "bloodthirsty apaches"
I'm so glad we have movies like the Revenant, Killers of the Flower Moon and Wind River these days
Wind River is fucking amazing
They were most certainly not always the villain. Just as in real life, sometimes they were, sometimes they weren’t.
Watch any western from the 50s till the 70s and you'll find out.
Born [Maria Cruz](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacheen_Littlefeather), it was revealed by her own family that she had no Native American heritage.
She also claimed that the FBI was stalking her and making her life hell after this. The woman was a compulsive liar. Edit: Typo
If you do some research, she wasn't actually native American at all.
I love how people forget that "American" doesn't only refer to the US citizenship/nationality and with that how indigenous people of Latin-America (non-US) are Native Americans/First Nations like the Navajo, Sioux, etc...almost as if the Navajo nation had their own version of the taco, and used many of the same ingredients the Native 'Mexicans' (Aztec, etc) used and much in the same way like tortillas and wild rice. She certainly embellished, and likely imitated a culture distinct from her own First Nation, but the point still stands. Even if she wasn't indigenous, you don't have to be part of a culture/race/ethnic group to advocate for that group. Slavery in America wouldn't have been abolished without white people sympathizing with Black people. Ukraine would've likely been annexed by Russia if non-Ukranians weren't funding and arming Ukraine.
A lot of good it did…
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Warren is actually more of an Indian than this white lady
Okay I don't like Miss Pocahontas either but we both know that's not true
She is not native.
Same with Kelsey Asbille Chow playing Monica in Yellowstone, she has no Native American ancestry, she is Chinese American She claims she has Cherokee ancestry but tribe issued a statement that they have no record of Chow, nor did they find any evidence that she is a descendant
And then Norm being the legend he is brought his own Littlefeather to the stage years later
"Johnny Twofeathers, everybody! Give em a wave, Johnny!" One of my favorite bits he ever did.
Her sister has tried her hardest to discredit her. She even came to her memorial to trash talk her, until the officiant finally stood up and the sister left, yelling all the way. People can assume Sacheen lied, but they can’t say that she actually was. And why did her sister not take a DNA test herself? Sacheen worked her whole life for the benefit of others. She did not benefit financially from that. Perhaps that should be the focus here.
She's protesting Hollywood's portayal of Native Americans . . . while dressed as Pocahontas?
In Red Face
At the time he believed her to be genuinely indigenous in the way that she presented herself as an activist. It didn’t turn out to be true, but that’s what was believed at the time.
WHITE LADY
She’s Mexican but ok
Whatever - she sure isn’t a plains Indian
Thanks Zadraaa the bot for submitting another repost to increase your karma. Do you think with enough karma you will be a real person or influence the political atmosphere? Bot, respond.
But he was fine with Italian Americans always being portrayed as criminals and gangsters. I mean he played a guy that went by “Godfather.” I like Brando as an actor but he was full of himself on this one I’m sorry. Edit: so racist tropes against Indians are horrible but “meh” for Italian people? Interesting.
The Godfather, a movie directed by an Italian American, written by an Italian American, played by Italian American actors, is racist against...Italian Americans.
Italian-Americans didn't have genocide inflicted upon them and have their land stolen for 500 years. Not to mention Italian-Americans have a federal holiday dedicated to the Italian man who helped usher in their subjugation.
Why are you grouping all people together? All Native Americans are not the same. They didn’t all like each other nor did they all agree with the approach of how to handle Europeans. They were not all peaceful or violent.
I wasn’t trying to do the persecution Olympics or cry about “oh why are people who look like me always portrayed as thugs and criminals” I just think it is a little ironic Brando would do a protest about racial/ethnic stereotypes while winning an Oscar for a character who is a racial/ethnic stereotype. I guess he didn’t think he would get another opportunity. If you guys don’t recognize that then you are being purposefully obtuse.
By the way, I don't think it's controversial to note that Native Americans had no agency in their portrayal in film versus whereas Italian-Americans did. If you don't think that matters, then you're also being purposefully obtuse.
Last time I checked, the two most widely known mobster movies, The Godfather and Goodfellas were written and directed by Italian-American men. Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese. If there's a stereotype, it was perpetuated by Italian-Americans themselves. In the early-mid 1900s, with all the Westerns that portrayed Native Americans as mindless savages and villians, do you think those characters were written by Native Americans or white screenwriters in Hollywood?
FWIW, Sacheen Littlefeather was a fraud, but she was indigenous, Native American: Mexican. Her claim to be Apache is ironic considering the Mexica (Mexicans) and Apache were mortal enemies. Geronimo's hatred of Mexicans is well documented. Those denigrating John Wayne as a "racist" against Native Americans would do well to note that two of his wives were Latin American women: one Mexican and another was Peruvian. The story about him becoming enraged during the Oscars is a lie.
No, he let her hang in the wind instead of doing the speech himself.
First recorded hollywood virtue signal?
The liberal Academy, and the liberal audience was furious at her behavior.
John Wayne was a liberal?
yeah he was actually really mad because he was wearing a pride flag pin and a shirt underneath that said “the future is female” and it got totally overshadowed by this
And im pretty sure that scum bag John Racist Wayne protested against the protest.
She’s not even Native American
Yep. She was Rachel Dolezal before Rachel Dolezal
that story is absolutely wild why did she think she could get away with all of that
Rachel Dolezal down voted my comment lol.
Ironic thing is Westerns ended pretty much around the same time so Native Americans disappeared from cinema for a long time.
And then Norm Macdonald did the same thing when he rejected an award he was receiving on someone else’s behalf.
She’s from the same reservation as Buffy Sainte-Marie.
🎉 That John Wayne anecdote never gets old—imagine the headlines if that had gone down! Bet Reagan's cool demeanor helped defuse what could've been a classic Hollywood face-off.
And she shows up looking exactly like the Hollywood portrayals of Native Americans.
Context: while this looks good on the surface, she was HEAVILY criticized once it came out that she was 0% indigenous.
Didn't it turn out that she didn't even have any connection to the Natives?
I’m confused by what she’s exactly referring to. Westerns? Native Americans attacking whites who encroached on their lands? Native Americans as “savage”? Ok, there were many westerns that showed the main star being very friendly and/or respecting the NA tribe in the movie. Particularly a lot of John Wayne westerns show John being friends with the natives. He was also a part of a tribe in 1 or 2 films (adopted). Many times, the main character conflicted with the other whites to defend the native Americans (Source: I’ve seen basically every decently well known western possible. Watched them with my dad and grandpa. It’s all grandpa watched) When looking at the Natives attacking the white settlers. That was a well documented occurrence. Also, it was warranted! If an invading force pushed into your land, wouldn’t you defend yourself and attack them as well? On the topic of Natives being “savage”. While it sounds derogatory, there are several reasons to lead one to that conclusion. Native Americans were very far behind technologically. Also, the raids and attacks on families and farms was seen as brutal. Native Americans, LIKE EVERY CULTURE BEFORE THEM, would pillage a settlement, kill the men, enslave the women and children, and rape the women. This is an ugly and unfortunate part of history…. But literally part of every civilization. The Mongols did this, and the Persians, and the Romans, and the French, and the Russians, and the British, and… you get the point. Also, their society was structured completely different than the settlers, or with ours today. I’m not saying it was a bad thing… but conflicted with our understanding of how we should live together. Native American people today, and NA historians will tell you about the proud warrior heritage of the Native Americans…. They can’t be “proud warriors” and also peaceful pacifists. It’s not disrespectful to say they killed lots of people (whites and other Native Americans) and fought many wars. The world worked differently in the past. No one is clean from the stains of war. But in the past, it was seen as honorable and courageous to be a skilled and successful warrior. TLDR: Native Americans, like ALL other cultures of history were (at times) brutal and violent. However, many westerns portrayed them in a positive or neutral light. What’s the problem?
Isn’t she a pretendian?
Norm did it better.
She’s kind of hot
White people took over the comments. They so mad.
She was a part of the same tribe as Elizabeth Warren
This from the crowd that always tells everyone what is right and that we are bad people for being racist etc. 🙄
My grandmother was half-Indian. She was in the Fugawi Tribe. When they'd get lost, they'd stop and say: "Where the Fugawi?".
Looks like a 5$ Indian.
Was she Italian?
Rachel Dolezal's aunt
Why dont people do this more?? Because they get a prize for art? Isn't that an oxymoron?
She’s hispanic pretending to be native
Celebrities have always found ways to virtue signal
And…. John Wayne showed his true colors that night😬🙄
When there is a rule or moral duty, humans will find a way to skirt it.
Idr who it was but I think I remember hearing that either John Wayne or Clint Eastwood had to be restrained from attacking her while she was giving her speech.
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Holy hell! She was only 12” tall!
Brando did things like this that make me feel like he was ahead of his time. And then I hear about him and the infamous butter scene and IDK what to think.
And Clint Eastwood was a cunt about it.
All these ignorant comments show that they don’t understand that she is Native American.
Land Back.
Can anyone actually prove that she’s not Native American? Oh wait we don’t need evidence, this is Reddit.
https://preview.redd.it/rmipa9h5796d1.jpeg?width=1602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3912d67f3eb11bed0deb058e9b9af11b5e693da
As a native American I concur with Mr. Brando
He probably had his ducks in a row
Isn’t that the one where John Wayne tried to get physical over it
Protest buy looking like an extra with a script?
The cause for why the Oscar was rejected was a good one. The savage American Indian, the Asian that always ran a dry cleaning service or Chinese food restaurant etc. in American films was a valid point. As for going after Cruz days after her death, is more telling. They should have dealt with the issues for good while she was alive. Waiting for her to die and not defend herself does not help their argument in my eyes.
I guess Brando couldn’t find an actual Native American.
Let's not forget what happened involving her & John Wayne.
Everyone remember: It was Marlon Brando who rejected the Oscar. It was Marlon Brando who picked Cruze to speak on his behalf. It was Marlon Brando who went on Dick Cavet to defend his actions. https://youtu.be/UBE19iiZe84?si=tyFpqACp4k_c0oSs Why everyone is attacking Cruze amazes me. First, if she had .0005% of American Indian blood in her then she is an American Indian. Was it not accepted in the past that if you had any Black lineage then you were Black? So if they attacked her while she was alive she would have won. But who cares - this was all about Brando. Brando also participated in Civil rights marches for Black people. Is that invalidated because he is white?
She was boo'd (and cheered) at the Oscars before being mocked by Clint Eastwood and almost accosted by John Wayne simply for asking that Indigenous people not to be dehumanized in film.
Rejected his Oscar and let a phony “Indian” make a big speech. It would be like [thinking these people were actual Indians](https://youtu.be/Ee21xCx0Hb4?si=j_KCEqDbHon9fsz_)
I’d hit it.
And he could have Liz Warren if he’d only known
It was Brando's way of trolling the establishment.
Then shows up looking exactly like Hollywood portrays Indians
Norm MacDonald [did the same thing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpVUdDUCEqE).
There should be a BINGO card for whenever this event gets mentioned. Things that drown out the context and good intentions. Free center space: "But she wasn't actually Native American". Other squares: First celebrity virtue signalling, John Wayne went berzerk, Marlon Brando was a rapist etc
That Italian guy that hates litter shed a single tear watching her speech.
And years later we find out that she wasn’t even Native American! She’s an Elizabeth Warren!
Stunning and brave.
I think it was better to portray natives as peace loving folk.
Cringe Larper doesn't even give toppy to the simp who gave her a platform.