Native American civil rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather passes away at 75

Sacheen Littlefeather had famously decline Marlon Brando’s Academy Award in 1973

Sacheen Littlefeather, Native American civil rights activist who in 1973 declined Marlon Brando’s Best Actor Academy Award, died on October 2, 2022 at the age of 75.

Littlefeather died on Sunday at her resident in Novato, Northern California, according to a statement sent out by her caretaker.

In 2018, it was reported that Littlefeather had developed stage 4 breast cancer.

Born Marie Louise Cruz in Salinas, California to a Native American father (Apache and Yaqui) and European American mother in 1946, Littlefeather became interested in Native American issues in college and participated in the 1970 occupation of Alcatraz Island, adopting her name during that time.

After college, she joined the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and reportedly met Brando, who took an interest in Native American issues, through his “The Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola who, like Littlefeather, lived in San Francisco.

In 1973, Littlefeather stood on the Academy Awards stage on behalf of Marlon Brando to speak about the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood films. Littlefeather, wearing buckskin dress and moccasins, took the stage, becoming the first Native American woman ever to do so at the Academy Awards. 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." Littlefeather also used her time on stage to bring attention to the 1973 Wounded Knee South Dakota protest.

Earlier this year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences apologized to her for the abuse she faced which involved being “professionally boycotted, personally harassed and attacked, and discriminated against for the last fifty years.”