SACHEEN LITTLEFEATHER
Name: Sacheen Littlefeather
Born: 30 January 1947
Sacheen Littlefeather (born Maria Cruz on 30 January 1947) Salinas, California,
U.S. is an activist who donned Apache dress and explained on behalf of actor
Marlon Brando why 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 in the early
1970s. He decided in 1973 that he wanted to make a statement about 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.
Name: Sacheen Littlefeather
Born: 30 January 1947
Sacheen Littlefeather (born Maria Cruz on 30 January 1947) Salinas, California,
U.S. is an activist who donned Apache dress and explained on behalf of actor
Marlon Brando why 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 in the early
1970s. He decided in 1973 that he wanted to make a statement about 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.