[News] In Tribute: Marlon Brando's Oscar Speech

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This was during the siege at Wounded Knee led by the American Indian 
Movement (which started in late February 1973)


Subject: In Tribute: Marlon Brando's Oscar Speech

As applicable today as then, both in regard to indigenous Americans and to 
the oppressed in many parts of the World:

March 30, 1973

That Unfinished Oscar Speech

By MARLON BRANDO

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- 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. Only if you lay down your arms, my friends, can we then talk of 
peace and come to an agreement which will be good for you.''

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.

But there is one thing which is beyond the reach of this perversity and 
that is the tremendous verdict of history. And history will surely judge 
us. But do we care? What kind of moral schizophrenia is it that allows us 
to shout at the top of our national voice for all the world to hear that we 
live up to our commitment when every page of history and when all the 
thirsty, starving, humiliating days and nights of the last 100 years in the 
lives of the American Indian contradict that voice?

It would seem that the respect for principle and the love of one's neighbor 
have become dysfunctional in this country of ours, and that all we have 
done, all that we have succeeded in accomplishing with our power is simply 
annihilating the hopes of the newborn countries in this world, as well as 
friends and enemies alike, that we're not humane, and that we do not live 
up to our agreements.

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.

Recently there have been a few faltering steps to correct this situation, 
but too faltering and too few, so I, as a member in this profession, do not 
feel that I can as a citizen of the United States accept an award here 
tonight. I think awards in this country at this time are inappropriate to 
be received or given until the condition of the American Indian is 
drastically altered. If we are not our brother's keeper, at least let us 
not be his executioner.

I would have been here tonight to speak to you directly, but I felt that 
perhaps I could be of better use if I went to Wounded Knee to help 
forestall in whatever way I can the establishment of a peace which would be 
dishonorable as long as the rivers shall run and the grass shall grow.

I would hope that those who are listening would not look upon this as a 
rude intrusion, but as an earnest effort to focus attention on an issue 
that might very well determine whether or not this country has the right to 
say from this point forward we believe in the inalienable rights of all 
people to remain free and independent on lands that have supported their 
life beyond living memory.

Thank you for your kindness and your courtesy to Miss Littlefeather. Thank 
you and good night.

This statement was written by Marlon Brando for delivery at the Academy 
Awards ceremony where Mr. Brando refused an Oscar. The speaker, who read 
only a part of it, was Shasheen Littlefeather.

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