Actress Sacheen Littlefeather who in 1973 famously declined Marlon Brando’s Oscar for the Godfather has walked on. Her passing was announced Sunday October 2nd.

Littlefeather, who identified as Yaqui and Apache, brought national attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee, which she mentions during her 60 second speech at the first internationally broadcast Oscars Ceremony. At that time, the events at Wounded Knee were shrouded from media coverage due to an imposed media blackout from the Department of Justice, but Littlefeather’s speech and Brando’s support garnered the movement international attention.

“Leaders of the American Indian Movement were at wounded knee in South Dakota, where the FBI had shut down all media access to them. And that night of the Academy Awards, they were asked by Marlon to watch that show on their little Eddie BTC television set in a trading post at Wounded Knee. And they all did. And after I appeared there, and I mentioned Wounded Knee in 1973. They all cheered. And some of them went outside and fired their guns in celebration. And it broke the media boycott, because that was the first time in television and Academy Award history that that show had been broadcast via satellite around the world. And so all of the world’s media, descended on Wounded Knee and broke that media boycott” Littlefeather said.

On September 17th 2022, the Academy of Motion Pictures held an event to apologies and honor Sacheen, who had been blacklisted from Hollywood after the 1973 Oscars.

Sacheen said of the apology: “It’s never too late for an apology. It’s never too late for forgiveness. I never thought that I would ever receive an apology. I feel that my husband of 32 years, had gone up to the Creator. And that he was always upset about it for me, because he loved me so much. We’re like peas and carrots. Were like, you know, salt and pepper were two people seen from the same lens in life, because there were two native people. And he always hurt for me. And I think he went up to the Creator, and said, we’ve got to do something about this. I think he was the inspiration behind the good things in my life. And this is certainly one of the good things.”

Littlefeather was terminally ill with breast Cancer and spoke openly about lgoing home to the spirit world. Sacheen Littlefeather will be laid to rest next to her husband of 32 years Charles Koshiway who passed away in November of 2021.