The Academy Finally Formally Apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather

An overdue apology is given almost 50 years after the Oscars in 1973.

Will Smith slapping Chris Rock was not the first incident to make waves at the Oscars.

In 1973, Marlon Brando won an Oscar for Best Actor in The Godfather. However, instead of accepting the award, Native American actress and civil rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather rejected the award on his behalf. The reason was the racist "treatment of American Indians today by the film industry." In response to this statement, the audience booed her, John Wayne tried to attack her, and the media gave her unnecessarily harmful attention. 

On August 15th, 2022, the Academy finally took to Instagram to issue the well-deserved apology that Littlefeather should have gotten sooner than later. Littlefeather responded to the apology and said, “Regarding the Academy’s apology to me, we Indians are very patient people — it’s only been 50 years! We need to keep our sense of humor about this at all times. It’s our method of survival.”

Some people like to say, "better late than never." However, the Academy should have never purposely waited half a century to take accountability for disrespecting a civil rights activist. It also does not help the image of the Academy when they never publicly supported Native Americans and their culture.

Hopefully, fans of the Oscars ceremonies will continue to remember the impact that Littlefeather had for sticking up for the lack of positive Native American representation in Hollywood.