Friday, February 22, 2019

"And the winner is ..."




I remember watching this when it happened. I remember very clearly that it was not Brando's refusal of the award that caused the audience to react (with boos, first, then clapping), but his feelings towards "the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry ... and on television, in movie re-runs, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee," as conveyed by the person he asked to decline the award on his behalf, Sacheen Littefeather, who is of White Mountain Apache and Yaqui ancestry.

While reading up on this event I came upon a 2012 article by Dina Gilio-Whitaker in Indian Country Today that includes an exchange between Tonight Show host Jay Leno and comeditarian Dennis Miller. The topic was Massachussets senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren, but it quickly turned to Littlefeather.

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