| On the eve of the 45th Academy Awards, Marlon Brando announced that he would boycott the ceremony and send Apache Sacheen Littlefeather in his place. As Littlefeather read the acceptance letter, some in the crowd booed (video bottom left). Marlon Brando was among a few in Hollywood who raised attention to what is being taught about Indigenous culture in our schools, by the media and in films (video below left). Littlefeather says she was immediately blacklisted in Hollywood, according to Indian County Media Network. Indian Country Today tells how "Marlon Brando asked Littlefeather, then a budding actress, to attend the Academy Awards and refuse the Oscar for him to protest the way the film industry perpetuated harmful stereotypes of Native Americans, and to show his solidarity with American Indian activists who were at that moment engaged in an armed battle with the FBI at Wounded Knee." | Marlon Brando supported the American Indian Movement (AIM), co-founded by American Indian Icon Dennis Banks. Now, Dennis Banks volunteered to be co-master of ceremony for The Gathering 2015 at the Clarke County Fairgrounds in Berryville VA this fall. The three-day festival details are online at www.HarvestGathering.org. Everyone is welcome to attend. Schedule for The Gathering CLICK HERE. “John Wayne was backstage, and he became very upset at my speech, and it took four to six men to restrain him from coming to drag me off stage,” says Littlefeather. |
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