20世纪70年代的社会动荡是印度急需变革的时期。美洲土著人在所有社会经济指标中处于底层，美国印第安青年清楚地看到，如果不采取重大行动，变革是不会发生的。然后马龙·白兰度来到了舞台中央，把这一切都带到了舞台中央——完全是字面意义上的。

动荡时期

到1973年3月，恶魔岛的占领已过去两年。印度活动家在前一年接管了印度事务局大楼，对受伤膝盖的围攻正在南达科他州进行。与此同时，尽管发生了大规模抗议，越南战争仍没有结束。没有人不发表意见，一些好莱坞明星会因为他们的立场而被铭记，即使他们不受欢迎，也有争议。马龙·白兰度就是其中之一。

美国印第安人运动

AIM的实现要感谢城市中的美国土著大学生和保留地的活动家，他们非常清楚自己的生活条件是政府压迫政策的结果。

有人试图进行非暴力抗议——虽然恶魔岛的占领持续了一年多，但它完全是非暴力的——但有时暴力似乎是引起人们注意这一问题的唯一途径。1973年2月，奥格拉拉·拉科塔松岭保留地的紧张局势达到顶点。一群全副武装的奥格拉拉·拉科塔人和他们的美洲印第安人运动支持者占领了1890年大屠杀发生地受伤膝盖镇的一个贸易站。占领者要求美国支持的部落政府改变政权，该政府多年来一直虐待保留地的居民，他们发现自己陷入了一场长达71天的与联邦调查局（FBI）和美国执法局（U.S.Marshal Service）的武装战斗，全国的目光都在晚间新闻上看到了这场战斗。

马龙白兰度与奥斯卡奖

马龙·白兰度支持各种社会运动的历史悠久，至少可以追溯到1946年，当时他支持犹太复国主义运动建立犹太家园。他还参加了1963年的华盛顿游行，并支持马丁·路德·金博士的工作。他甚至向黑豹捐款。然而，后来他开始批评以色列并支持巴勒斯坦事业。

白兰度对好莱坞对待美国印第安人的方式也非常不满。他反对电影中印第安人的表现方式。当他因在《教父》中扮演堂·科利昂而获得奥斯卡提名时，他拒绝出席颁奖典礼。相反，他派遣了Sacheen Littlefeather（出生于Marie Cruz），一位年轻的阿帕奇/亚基活动家，曾参与了对恶魔岛的占领。Littlefeather是一位崭露头角的模特和演员，她同意代表他。

当白兰度被宣布为获胜者时，利特尔费瑟身着土生土长的华丽服装登上了舞台。她代表白兰度发表简短演讲，拒绝接受该奖项。他实际上写了一篇长达15页的演讲，解释了他的理由，但利特尔费瑟后来说，如果她试图阅读整个演讲，她将受到逮捕的威胁。相反，她得到了60秒的时间。她只能说：

"Marlon Brando has asked me to tell you, in a very long speech which I cannot share with you presently because of time but I will be glad to share with the press afterward, that he must ... very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. "And the reason [sic] for this being ... are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry … excuse me… and on television in movie reruns, and also the recent happenings at Wounded Knee. "I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will, in the future ... our hearts and our understanding will meet with love and generosity. "Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando."

人群又欢呼又嘘声。该演讲在仪式后的新闻发布会上发表，并由《纽约时报》全文刊登。

全文

1973年，美国原住民在电影业几乎没有代表性，他们主要被用作临时演员，而在几代西部片中刻画印第安人的主角几乎总是由白人演员担任。白兰度的演讲谈到了电影中对美洲土著人的刻板印象，而这一主题在电影业被认真对待之前已经很久了。

白兰度在《纽约时报》刊登的原始演讲中说：

"Perhaps at this moment you are saying to yourself what the hell has all this got to do with the Academy Awards? Why is this woman standing up here, ruining our evening, invading our lives with things that don't concern us, and that we don't care about? Wasting our time and money and intruding in our homes. "I think the answer to those unspoken questions is that the motion picture community has been as responsible as any for degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing his as savage, hostile and evil. It's hard enough for children to grow up in this world. When Indian children watch television, and they watch films, and when they see their race depicted as they are in films, their minds become injured in ways we can never know."

与他的政治敏感性不谋而合，白兰度也毫不掩饰美国对待美洲印第安人的态度：

"For 200 years we have said to the Indian people who are fighting for their land, their life, their families and their right to be free: Lay down your arms, my friends, and then we will remain together ... "When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did. For them, we do not have to restore these people, we do not have to live up to some agreements, because it is given to us by virtue of our power to attack the rights of others, to take their property, to take their lives when they are trying to defend their land and liberty, and to make their virtues a crime and our own vices virtues."

萨克恩小飞人

Sacheen Littlefeather因参加奥斯卡颁奖典礼而接到科雷塔·斯科特·金（Coretta Scott King）和塞萨尔·查韦斯（Cesar Chavez）的电话，祝贺她所做的一切。但她也收到死亡威胁，媒体对她撒谎，包括指控她不是印度人。她在好莱坞被列入黑名单。

她的演讲让她一夜成名，她的名气将被《花花公子》杂志所利用。Littlefeather和其他几位美国土著女性曾在1972年为《花花公子》拍照，但这些照片直到1973年10月奥斯卡颁奖典礼后不久才被公布。由于她签署了一份模型版本，所以她没有法律途径对他们的出版物提出异议。

Littlefeather长期以来一直是美洲土著社区公认的、备受尊敬的成员，尽管人们一直在猜测她的身份。她继续在旧金山湾的家里为土著美国人做社会公正工作，并作为美国土著艾滋病患者的倡导者。她还致力于其他健康教育工作，并与特蕾莎修女一起为艾滋病患者提供临终关怀。