The Oscars Remember that Native Americans Exist. Here’s Hoping the Rest of the Country Catches On.

The Oscars are this Sunday, and what with expected responses to #OscarsSoWhite, #OscarsSoMale, and #TimesUp/#MeToo, this year’s Oscars are sure to be…interesting. One of the things the show has done right is ensure that this year’s award presenters are a gender balanced and diverse group of industry professionals. Actor Wes Studi is thrilled to be a part of it. Finally.

Presenters at the Oscars aren’t tracked, but Studi, whose long career has included being in films like Avatar, The Last of the Mohicans, and Dances with Wolves, may be the first Native American presenter at the Oscars this year. In a statement to the New York Daily News, Studi said “I see it as an acceptance of my participation in the business over a number of years. It’s like being invited to the party.” He’s also hopeful that this is “a time when we’re all hopefully embracing the diversity of the world we live in, and Hollywood has a way of reflecting that.”

Very few Native American industry professionals have participated in the ceremony at all, with Will Rogers, who was of Cherokee heritage, being the only Native Oscars host in 1934. The only Native Oscar nominees have been Canadian: Chief Dan George in 1971 for Little Big Man, and Graham Greene in 1991 for Dances with Wolves. Musician Buffy Sainte-Marie won the Oscar in 1983 for the original song “Up Where We Belong.”

When Dances with Wolves won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, writer Michael Blake invited Doris Leader Charge, who served as a consultant on the film, to join him onstage. She translated his remarks into Lakota Sioux. And back in 1973, actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather made an unexpected Oscars appearance when she subbed for Marlon Brando at his request, rejecting his Best Actor award for The Godfather. Brando said decision to refuse the trophy was partly to protest the depiction of Native Americans on-screen.

That is, when they’re portrayed at all. A big reason why there’s so little Native representation at the Oscars ceremony is that there’s so little representation in the stories Hollywood tells, and in media in general. And this lack of representation causes problems far beyond Hollywood.

After all, in a country that collectively forgets its own Native people, you get Jeopardy boards that look like this:

oh I see how it is, jeopardy contestants pic.twitter.com/lvuy3MRTRp

— the mighty mighty leasktones (@Leask) March 1, 2018

(via New York Daily News, image: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

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