The actress and activist rejected Marlon Brando's Oscar on her behalf at the 1973 ceremony, which reportedly angered Wayne.
Sacheen Littlefeather received an apology from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences due to the abuse she endured during her 1973 Oscar speech.
The actress and activist took the stage on behalf of Marlon Brando after he was awarded Best Actor for his portrayal of Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
In a powerful speech, she rejected the award as part of Brando's protest over Hollywood's depictions of Native Americans. The gesture was also intended to highlight the events at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, where a massacre of Native Americans took place in 1890 and protests continued.
At the time, her comments received some sounds of support, as well as boos from those who disagreed with her taking a political position at the ceremony.
According to the actress, someone who felt quite offended by her stance was western star John Wayne. In many of her films, she played a cowboy who always clashed with indigenous characters.
“During my performance, he came towards me to forcibly remove me from the stage, and six security men had to restrain him to prevent him from doing so,” she told The Guardian in 2021.
Now, 49 years after the event, the board behind the Academy Awards has issued an apology to Littlefeather.
In response, the actress expressed her happiness at the recognition of her abuse, almost five decades later. “This is a dream come true,” she stated in a statement. It's very encouraging to see how much has changed since I turned down the Academy Award 50 years ago. “I am very proud of each and every person who will appear on stage.”
Littlefeather, who starred in the films The Laughing Policeman, The Trial of Billy Jack and Johnny Firecloud, previously said that after turning down Brando's Oscar, she was blacklisted from the entertainment industry. After appearing in Shoot the Sun Down in 1978, Littlefeather did not act on screen again.
Much later she appeared in the documentary Reel Injun in 2009, before appearing as herself in the short documentary Sacheen: Breaking the Silence in 2018.
