What is Sacheen Littlefeather Known for?

Sacheen Littlefeather is a Native American civil right activist, model, and actress from the United States.

Sacheen Littlefeather is best known for attending the Academy Awards ceremony in 1973 at Marlon Brando’s request, where she refused Brando’s Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather to protest Hollywood’s treatment of American Indians.

Sacheen Littlefeather was led off-stage, past several people who were critical of her, and toward the press after her protest.

The protest by Brando and Littlefeather was widely regarded as inappropriate for the awards ceremony.

Littlefeather spent two days in Los Angeles after delivering the speech before returning to San Francisco.

She later claimed that after the Academy Awards, she went to Marlon Brando’s house and bullets were fired into his front door while they were talking.

The Academy sent Littlefeather an apology letter in June 2022, in which then-president David Rubin wrote: “The abuse you endured as a result of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified.”