A Recent TV Slur Revives Debate About Sacheen Littlefeather and Her Role in Marlon Brando's Oscar Refusal

Dina Gilio-Whitaker: November 24, 2012
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"A longtime resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Littlefeather is a highly respected member of the Native American community. She has served as head woman dancer at many pow wows and is known for her work in health-care education in the Native community. In the 1980s she worked with Mother Teresa ministering to AIDS patients in hospice care, leading to her becoming one of the founding board members of the American Indian AIDS Institute of San Francisco. In 1981 she worked for the Kiowa tribe in Oklahoma and wrote a health-related column in the tribal newspaper. She has helped produce numerous Native American films, even sharing an Emmy Award in 1984 for her contribution to PBS’s Dance in America: A Song for Dead Warriors, which featured a ballet based on the life of Richard Oakes, one of the Alcatraz occupation leaders. She is also a co-coordinator of the Kateri Prayer Circle of San Francisco."

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Littlefeather is a woman with an incredible amount of determination and strength to do what she did in the 1970s. I personally don't think that many women, especially a Native woman, would of had the strength to stand up in front of everyone and declare that Brando could not accept the very generous award because of the treatment of American Indians by the film industry and on television and because of “recent happenings at Wounded Knee." I find it rather impressive that a famous individual is actually paying attention to what is happening to the Native populations in the 1970s, enough so that he was willing to not accept his award, but instead sends up a Native woman. I don't know if I would consider this a cop out on his part? Is it weak that he didn't make the speech against what was happening himself or was he being attention the issue further by having a Native woman deliver the speech. He probably thought it was a better idea to have a Native woman deliver the speech than to have himself do it. It would be considered an attention grabber play, but it didn't work out the way he planned it would. It back fired completely. It destroyed her life. She was black listed from the film industry and had terrible racist articles written about her. The latest racist comment happened only a few months ago on the Jay Leno show. He said that she was not Native and called her a "stripper," because of a photoshoot that happened in Playboy.
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The fact that she had to defend herself so strongly back then and still so strongly now shows that the opinion of Native people and especially woman haven't changed a whole lot. The article had to give an extreme amount of background (present in the above quote) to prove that she is a very active and important part of the environment. They had to defend her rights to be a Native American and prove that she was important and had something to prove. I find that the most depressing part, that a woman who has done so much for a community can be so easily destroyed by one action and never recover from it. She will never get back her power that she once held before the award show. I feel as thought it is partly Brando's fault for placing her in the situation, but she also took part in it. I don't think either part thought about how it would impact their lives forever. 

Victoria’s Secret Flap: Nothing Says Native American Heritage Month Like White Girls in Headdresses

By Sasha Houston Brown: November 11, 2012

  "I don’t know about you, but I usually spend this time of year parading around in my Navajo Hipster panties, feather headdress (on loan from Karlie Kloss and Gwen Stefani), Manifest Destiny T-Shirt and knee high fringed moccasins made in Taiwan while watching a Redskins game, smoking a pack of American Spirits and eating genetically modified Butter Ball turkey, because I’m just that traditional."

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 I can understand the author's outrage when it comes to the terrible stereotypes that have come into large light recently with all of the Native American cultural faux pas. First there was the Native American themed parties, then Halloween, then Gwen Stefani, and finally Karlie Kloss. But was it really all of these individual's fault or has society not shown the negative side of portraying this stereotyped ideal of Native Americans? I know that the individuals that have offended the Native public has issued apologies, but is that really enough? To say sorry and move on? Who is going to teach American society about the implications of what they have done? Not only have all of theses people pushed the inaccurate stereotype of Native Americans onto the uneducated public, but they have also told everyone that it is okay to offend if you give an apology, but some how still manage to repeat the same mistake over again. The picture of Karlie Kloss above should be considered extremely offensive not only to the Native public, but also to the American public. Not for just the reason of 'acting/portraying' a Native individual, but for enforcing uneducated, heterosexual, stereotypical garbage at the public. No women in all honesty looks like that individual. She is blessed to have her beauty and body, but what costs did she sacrifice to her health in order to get it? Why does no one seem to care about women anymore? Why is society (America) so desensitized to other cultures or issues happening around it? It is embarrassing to come from a place that has so little understanding of the world around it. A lot of the time I feel it is by choice inflicted by society to not support the educational system, which makes individuals uneducated or unable to seek out higher learning. No one should have the right to destroy someone's culture or their character. When will individuals learn that no one are you making yourself looked down on, but others as well.

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  "Native women, stripped of their humanity, are still objectified as a sexual fetish or exotic other. In fact, these kind of derogatory stereotypes have become a fixture of both American mythology and pop culture."

Indian Country, Social Media and the Right Response from Gwen Stefani and No Doubt

 

By Vincent Schilling: November 5, 2012

 "Within a few hours of posting their latest video “Lookin Hot”—in which Stefani was dancing suggestively in a series of video montages with cowboys and Indians and was also handcuffed and tied to a wall—social media outlets in Indian country were aflame with comments."

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 I haven't personally seen the the video that has caused a large up rage in the Native community, but I am currently searching to see what was going on. This quote above gives a small view as to what No Doubt was doing in the video...being handcuffed and tied to a wall? Really? Really No Doubt? Why to abuse and awkwardly hyper-sexualize Native women. I don't understand the background as to why they would choose to display this in a music video, but it just makes me think of rape and violence toward Native women. Being tired up and chained to a wall seems like a pretty large visual statement. People that don't know the background or have never learned anything about Native cultures probably would see nothing wrong with this. More generations now a days are considered a visual culture and there is nothing wrong with seeing women tired up and being abuse, which in and of itself is completely wrong....but using this imagery causes individuals to believe that Native women are wild and need to be trained/tamed. It impacts the public on more than one point and can destroy all the hard work that Native women have worked to achieve.

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“As a multi-racial band our foundation is built upon both diversity and consideration for other cultures. Our intention with our new video was never to offend, hurt or trivialize Native American people, their culture or their history. Although we consulted with Native American friends and Native American studies experts at the University of California, we realize now that we have offended people. This is of great concern to us and we are removing the video immediately. The music that inspired us when we started the band, and the community of friends, family, and fans that surrounds us was built upon respect, unity and inclusiveness. We sincerely apologize to the Native American community and anyone else offended by this video. Being hurtful to anyone is simply not who we are.”

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The article goes on to state they he is proud of the way that No Doubt handled the issue that they were faced with (even though they make the issue themselves). The way in which they apologized was incredibly important in order to help bond the band back to the community, but the fact that it happened in the first place should somehow take away from the apology, maybe? No Doubt stated that they talked with individuals that have roots in Native American culture, but does that make it any better? Does saying that you developed an idea and worked with a certain type of people take away from the racist ideals attached to it? It's like individuals say "It's not racist, because I have this type of friend" or "I'm not racist, but..." I understand that pulling the video down probably costs the band a lot of money and wasted a lot of people's time, but did anyone notice that he son was dressed up as a Native individual for Halloween? Does that make it okay to wear people around at a costume in order to collect candy and make fun? It that what cultures have become? Something that is just worn around and laughed at? I guess this can be considered a victory for the Indian Nation, but is it really a victory or have they been silenced again until something else offensive pops up?

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