Nearly 50 years after the offense, an apology.

Sacheen Littlefeather, representing Oscar-winner Marlon Brando at the 1973 ceremony, received ridicule and jeers from the crowd when she relayed that Mr. Brando would not accept the Best Actor Academy Award because of the poor representation of Native Americans on TV and in the movies.  On a stage by herself, in front of a packed auditorium of nearly all of Hollywood's elite and 85 million more watching at home, she delivered the stunning message with guts and grace.

In an interview shortly after the ceremony, Brando said:

"I read a book called, “Indians of the Americas” and after reading the book I realized that I knew nothing about the American Indian, and everything that we are taught about the American Indian is wrong. It's inaccurate, and our schoolbooks are hopelessly lacking — perhaps criminal lacking in revealing what our relationship was with the Indian.

"When we hear, as we've heard throughout our lives no matter how old we are, that we are a country that stands for freedom, for rightness or justice for everyone, it simply doesn't apply to those who are not white. It just simply doesn't apply.

"We were the most rapacious, aggressive, destructive, torturing, monstrous, people who swept from one coast to the other murdering and causing mayhem among the Indians. That isn’t revealed, because we don’t like that image of ourselves. We don’t like to see us — we like to see ourselves, perhaps as John Wayne sees us.

"And also, what we’ve learned about the Indians has been largely taught to us by Hollywood and by motion pictures. They have educated us. So we naturally believe that when the Indians came that the wagons circled and the Indians rode around and subjected themselves to terrible fire and died at a ratio died at a ratio of 65 to 1....

"Indians have been tragically misrepresented in films, and in our history books, in our attitudes, in our reporting…"

In an interview with the very famous and popular Dick Cavett on his TV show, he offered the following:

"Since the American Indian hasn't had the opportunity to have his voice heard anywhere in the history of the United States, I felt that it was a marvelous opportunity for an Indian to be able to voice his opinion...I was embarrassed for Sacheen--she wan't able to say what she wanted to say.  I was distressed that people should have booed and whistled....even though, perhaps, it was directed at myself.  They should have, at least, had the courtesy to listen to her.

"I don't think that people generally realize what the motion picture industry has done to the American Indian...as a matter of fact all ethnic groups...all minorities, all non-whites."

Finally, the Academy has apologized and acknowledged that they were wrong.

An article about the statement form the Academy is HERE. 

You may also watch the TV broadcast of the Academy Award moment HERE.

If you'd like to watch Brando being interviewed about that moment, he says so much more so profoundly on the Dick Cavett Show.