Sacheen Littlefeather
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Sacheen Littlefeather (born Maria Cruz on 30 January 1947 in Salinas, California, U.S.) is an activist who donned Apache dress and explained on behalf of actor Marlon Brando when he would not arrive to claim the Oscar he had won for The Godfather in a prepared statement at the Academy Awards on March 27, 1973.
Marlon Brando became involved with the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the early 1970s. He decided in 1973 that he wanted to make a statement about the events at Wounded Knee and contacted AIM about providing a person to accept the Oscar for him. Dennis Banks and Russell Means picked Maria Cruz. She had previously been the winner of the 1970 Miss American Vampire competition.
She represented Brando and his boycotting of the Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather (1972), as a way to protest the ongoing siege at Wounded Knee and Hollywood and television's misrepresentation of American Indians. Brando had written a fifteen-page speech to be given at the awards by Cruz, but when the producer met her backstage, he threatened to physically remove her or have her arrested if she spoke on stage for more than 45 seconds. Her comments on stage were improvised. She then went backstage and read the entire speech to the press. Exactly what became of the Oscar still remains unknown.
Afterward, she began a brief acting career and appeared nude in Playboy in October 1973. Cruz has a heritage that includes Apache, Yaqui, Pueblo, and European ancestry.
Currently, Sacheen is the co-ordinator of the Kateri Prayer Circle in San Francisco and resides in the San Rafael, California area.
[edit] Filmography
- Shoot the Sun Down (1981)
- Winterhawk (1975)
- Johnny Firecloud (1975)
- Freebie and the Bean (1974) (uncredited)
- The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
- The Laughing Policeman (1973) (uncredited)
- Consigliori, Il (1973)
- The 45th Annual Academy Awards (TV)(1973) (Representing Marlon Brando to explain his boycotting of his Best Actor award for The Godfather)
