美国国家公共电台 NPR--Sacheen Littlefeather sacrificed her career to make way for Indigenous voices

Sacheen Littlefeather sacrificed her career to make way for Indigenous¹ voices

Transcript²

Actor and activist³ Sacheen Littlefeather, best known for declining Marlon Brando's 1973 Oscar to protest Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans, has died at the age of 75.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Time now for StoryCorps. Today, we remember actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather. In 1973, she used what should have been Marlon Brando's Oscar acceptance speech to call out the treatment of Native American people and their depiction⁴ in Hollywood. Littlefeather died this week at the age of 75. She came to StoryCorps in 2019, after she'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

SACHEEN LITTLEFEATHER: I was born into poverty. And my parents' marriage was illegal because my father was an Apache and Yaqui man. And my mother was white. I was raised by my two white grandparents, so there was hardly anybody that I could identify with. There were white dolls, white movie stars. People in magazines were all white. So I learned and experienced racial prejudice from a very early age. I didn't even have to walk out my front door. When I got to university, at long last - thank God - there were other Native people out there. We used to go to powwows together. And then I began to listen to the stories of the elders there. I thought then, this is who I really am. So I springboarded (ph) into the arts. And then, eventually, I met Marlon Brando. When I first got the phone call from him, I said, you're asking me to do what, use the Academy Award as a platform to make a political speech? Nothing had been done like that ever before.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LITTLEFEATHER: The winner is Marlon Brando in "The Godfather."

(APPLAUSE)

LITTLEFEATHER: The night of the awards ceremony, I had a sense of calm. I knew my ancestors were with me. I said what needed to be said. I refused the Academy Award.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LITTLEFEATHER: And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.

(JEERING, APPLAUSE)

LITTLEFEATHER: And then I became unhirable (ph), boycotted⁵, talked about, humiliated⁶ publicly. But as a result, I opened the doors for other people to speak. These are the things that I learned from the elders. You have to go through a lot of bumps in this life to smooth the road for others to come after you.

FADEL: That was Sacheen Littlefeather for StoryCorps in 2019. In August, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued an apology to Littlefeather. It came nearly 50 years after she was booed at the Oscars.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

4 depiction   

n.描述

参考例句：

• Double rhythms, resounding through the lyric depiction and connecting with each other, indicate the thespian place of mankind and the cognition of the writer to this thespian place. 这双重旋律互为表里，表明了人类的某种悲剧性处境以及作家对这种悲剧性处境的感受和认识。
• A realistic depiction of scenes from everyday domestic life. 日常家居生活的写实画。

5 boycotted   

抵制，拒绝参加( boycott的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Athletes from several countries boycotted the Olympic Games. 有好几国的运动员抵制奥林匹克运动会。
• The opposition party earlier boycotted the Diet agenda, demanding Miyaji's resignation. 反对党曾杯葛国会议程，要宫路下台。

6 humiliated   

感到羞愧的

参考例句：

• Parents are humiliated if their children behave badly when guests are present. 子女在客人面前举止失当，父母也失体面。
• He was ashamed and bitterly humiliated. 他感到羞耻，丢尽了面子。