CAUSE OF DEATH: Native American activist, Sacheen Littlefeather, is dead folk battle with cancer

In June, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences apologized to Littlefeather for her treatment at the Oscars that night. Littlefeather attended an in-person presentation of the apology at the Academy Museum on Sept. 17. (Read More Here).

At the Oscars, she was only given 60 seconds to read her speech on Native American rights, and was then escorted off the stage with audience members booing.

Sacheen Littlefeather (Apache/Yaqui/Ariz.), the Native American actress and activist who took to the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to reveal that Marlon Brando would not accept his Oscar for The Godfather, has died. She was 75.

Littlefeather died at noon Sunday at her home in the Northern California city of Novato surrounded by her loved ones, according to a statement sent out by her caretaker. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which reconciled with Littlefeather in June and hosted a celebration in her honor just two weeks ago, revealed the news on social media Sunday night.

Littlefeather disclosed in March 2018 that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, and it had metastasized in recent years.

Brando had decided to boycott the March 1973 Oscars in protest of how Native Americans were portrayed onscreen as well as to pay tribute to the ongoing occupation at Wounded Knee, in which 200 members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) faced off against thousands of U.S. marshals and other federal agents in the South Dakota town.

After presenters Liv Ullmann and Roger Moore listed the nominees for best actor and Ullmann called out Brando’s name as the winner, the telecast cut to Littlefeather, then 26 and wearing a traditional Apache dress, walking to the stage from her seat at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as the announcer explained, “Accepting the award for Marlon Brando and The Godfather, Miss Sacheen Littlefeather.”

Littlefeather, however, held up her right hand to decline the statuette proffered by Moore as she reached the podium and told the Chandler audience and the 85 million viewers watching at home that Brando “very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award.”

She was allowed to read her full speech at a later press conference, and it was printed in the New York Times. Raquel Welch, Clint Eastwood and Oscar co-host Michael Caine were among those who criticized her on-camera for disrupting the ceremony.

Littlefeather, born Marie Louise Cruz in Salinas, Calif., became interested in Native American issues in college and participated in the 1970 occupation of Alcatraz Island, adopting her name during that time.

After college, she joined SAG and reportedly met Brando, who took an interest in Native American issues, through Francis Ford Coppola who like Littlefeather, lived in San Francisco.

In a recent interview, Littlefeather told Variety what it was like to attend the Oscars on Brando’s behalf.

“It was my first time at the Academy Awards. I made it through my first hurdle, promising Marlon Brando that I would not touch that Oscar. But, as I walked off that stage, I did in the ways of courage, honor grace, dignity and truthfulness. I did so in the ways of my ancestors and the ways of Indigenous women.