Floyd Red Crow Westerman & Marlon Brando. "Two Speakers of great wisdom". When Marlon Brando was nominated for an Oscar at the 45th Academy Awards show, on March 27, 1973, for the role of Don Corleone in "The Godfather," he refused to attend and instead sent Sacheen Littlefeather, a young Apache/Yaqui activist who had participated in the Alcatraz Island occupation, and a budding model and actress, to represent him. When his name was announced as the winner by the Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann & Roger Moore, Sacheen went on stage dressed in full native regalia and delivered a short speech on behalf of Brando declining acceptance of the award. He had written a 15-page speech explaining his reasons, but Littlefeather would recount later that she had been threatened with arrest if she attempted to read the entire speech. Instead, she was given 60 seconds in which all she could say was: "Marlon Brando has asked me to tell you, in a very long speech which I cannot share with you presently-because of time-but I will be glad to share with the press afterward, that he must... very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. "And the reason for this being... are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry… excuse me… and on television in movie re-runs, and also the recent happenings at Wounded Knee. "I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will, in the future...our hearts and our understanding will meet with love and generosity. "Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando."
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:38:20 +0000