Sacheen Littlefeather
Sacheen Littlefeather ( born November 14, 1946 in Salinas, California as Marie Cruz ) is an American actress and Native American activist in the American Indian Movement (AIM ).
Larger gained fame Littlefeather when she appeared on behalf of Marlon Brando and with its authorization at the Oscar ceremony on March 27, 1973 in an unusual occasion for the traditional Apache clothing. With this in the international live broadcast from the public and the media not expected appearance, she founded initially in a short speech Brando's not accepting the Oscar for best actor for his role in the movie The Godfather. The rejection was carried out as a protest against the treatment of the Indians by the American film industry.
To put Littlefeather, highlighted in her role as spokesperson for the internationally successful film stars Marlon Brando, a demonstrative character for the civil rights of Indians in the U.S., and drew so - together with the absent Brando - the attention of a worldwide audience at the same time for a month by the AIM held occupation of the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.
Life
Marie Cruz was born in 1946 in Salinas, California. Her mother was French - German - Dutch descent, her father was descended from those covered by the Western Apache White Mountain Apaches and the Yaqui Indians. She was mostly raised by their maternal grandparents. After graduating from high school Cruz took the name Sacheen Littlefeather to emphasize their Indian origins.
Littlefeather supported 1969, the Indian activist group Indians of All Tribes, occupied the Alcatraz Island from 20 November 1969. The Indians relied on a contract from 1868, each of the Indians the use of former federal territory promised, if this would no longer be needed.
Littlefeather began in the early 1970s with acting, first at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She then worked at KFRC Radio in San Francisco and appeared in several television commercials. Then she took small roles in several films, including the Italian production by the Dozen to hell at the side of Martin Balsam and Tomás Milián. In 1970, she won the beauty contest Miss American Vampire. A custom built for the Playboy photo series with 10 Indian Models, including Littlefeather was due since the end of February 1973 held occupation of Wounded Knee not printed by militant members of AIM. However, published Littlefeathers individual photos in a later issue of the men's magazine in October 1973.
As Marlon Brando in 1973 should get an Oscar for his starring role in The Godfather, he refused to attend the award ceremony and instead wanted to send an AIM activists to the event. Brando knew Littlefeather from a previous meeting in Washington, DC, where she had held a presentation on racial and minority issues at the Federal Communications Commission.
Brando asked Littlefeather to represent him at the Oscars. He wrote a long speech in which he wanted to make the centuries- long oppression of civil rights of Native Americans, the distorting representation of Indians in Hollywood films and the ongoing protests at Wounded Knee attention. Littlefeather, which appeared on the event in the traditional clothing of the Apaches, could only hold an impromptu speech after the announcement by Roger Moore and Liv Ullmann because of the time limit of 60 seconds. While she received some applause for her speech, she was booed by the other side. The co- hosts Clint Eastwood and Raquel Welch were related at the Anmoderationen the Oscars for best film and best actress in connection with small jokes directly to the incident. The Oscar presenter Michael Caine criticized Brando that he had not come themselves and have instead Littlefeather sent forward " to the booing ."
Littlefeather later held the entire speech backstage before journalists present. The incident ended after their own assessment of their incipient acting career. Later, it was also criticized for her to have only played the role of Native American activist. So claimed the film critic Roger Ebert even in a 2004 obituary of Brando, Littlefeather is not a real Indian. The activist left Ebert publish an appropriate reply.
After the Oscar - incident Littlefeather worked on the radio. In the early 1980s, was Littlefeather co-founder of the National American Indian Performing Arts Registry, a non-profit organization that is committed to the use of Native Americans in film and television productions. For the television program Dance in America: A Song for Dead Warriors, who in 1984 won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography, Littlefeather worked as a consultant.
In 1992, she worked for two television productions of the Public Broadcasting Service, Remember Me Forever and The Americas Before Columbus. In 2009, she starred in the Peabody Award in 2010 with the excellent documentation Hollywood Indians ( Reel Injun ) of the filmmaker Neil Diamond.
She was active also for the Indian AIDS relief and is in the Archdiocese of San Francisco as coordinator of the San Francisco Kateri Circle active, which preserves the memory of the Indian beatified Kateri Tekakwitha, thereby bringing together Indian and Catholic believers. She regularly occurs in Indian festivals and powwows. Sacheen Littlefeather lives in San Rafael, California, and is still active as an activist for the rights of Indians in the San Francisco Bay Area.