From Lillian St. Cyr to Lily Gladstone: A Brief History of Hollywood Honoring Native Talent

Lily Gladstone is creating a lot of excitement these days. The 37-year-old actress of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage is generating Oscar buzz with her performance as Mollie Burkhart, the Osage wife of the scheming Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Apple/Paramount’s Killers of the Flower Moon. The actress also earned a Gotham Award nom on Oct. 24 for Music Box Films’ The Unknown Country, portraying a grieving woman embarking on a road trip.

But despite Killers of the Flower Moon surely bringing Gladstone wider attention, will her performance finally give Native American women their moment in Hollywood? Gladstone herself opted to campaign as a lead actress rather than supporting, and she could make history as the first Native American Oscar nominee for best actress. 

Additionally, Vogue has dubbed Cara Jade Myers (Wichita), who plays Mollie’s carefree and troubled sister Anna, as “Hollywood’s new star to watch.” Might Academy members also give a nod to her powerful portrayal?

Historically, Native actors have fared better with the Academy compared to Native actresses. In 2019, the board of governors presented an honorary award to versatile Cherokee actor Wes Studi for his lifetime achievement within the film industry. Other performers who have earned Oscar noms for their memorable roles include Chief Dan George (Tsleil-Waututh), honored for his portrayal as the Old Lodge Skins in 1970’s Little Big Man, and Graham Greene (Oneida), who followed with a nomination as the Sioux medicine man in 1990’s Dances With Wolves.

Chickasaw filmmaker Edwin Carewe, who discovered Dolores del Río and cast her in his celebrated 1928 film Ramona, became the Academy’s first Native American member when the organization was founded in 1927. And in a crowded room at the Ambassador Hotel in 1934, the first and only Native American to serve as the master of ceremonies at the Academy Awards was Cherokee actor Will Rogers.

Despite the impressive strides of these Native actors, their female counterparts have noticeably lagged behind.

Recent revelations of the industry’s two female icons as being non-Native — actress-activist Sacheen Littlefeather and singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie — have drawn attention to Native women and their lack of representation in Hollywood. Littlefeather represented Marlon Brando at the 1973 Oscars when she infamously declined the best actor award for The Godfather on his behalf. Brando had boycotted the ceremony as a protest against Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans, and during Littlefeather’s speech, members of the audience booed and whistled a few catcalls. Nearly half a century later, the Academy issued a formal apology to Littlefeather that was read in full at a September 2022 event honoring her, two weeks before her death. For more than 40 years, the Academy has celebrated Sainte-Marie as the first Indigenous woman to earn an Oscar for co-writing An Officer and a Gentleman’s original song “Up Where We Belong.” Now, her claim of Indigenous Canadian ancestry has come into question after an exposé in Canadian Broadcasting Co.’s long-running investigative doc series The Fifth Estate. 

But Gladstone has a chance to be the first Native actress to win an Oscar and fill that suddenly reopened gap.

The journey for Native actresses has been slow. More than 100 years ago, Lilian St. Cyr (Winnebago) became the first Native woman to appear in a feature film. St. Cyr, known as “Princess Red Wing,” portrayed the doomed “Indian Princess” when she marries a white man and tragically kills herself in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1914 film The Squaw Man.

Her contemporary Minnie Provost defied the image of the Native woman-as-victim in Mack Sennett’s hilarious 1914 short Fatty and Minnie He-Haw. Provost, of Oklahoma’s Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, portrayed a heavyset woman who attempts to nab her equally overweight future husband (Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle) by pushing him into her tipi and brandishing a dagger to demand marriage.

Kim Winona (Santee Sioux) later emerged as a lead female in the CBS series Brave Eagle (1955-56). Winona starred opposite Keith Larsen, the series’ peace-loving Cheyenne chief, but her character seldom delved beyond her romantic interest in the often-shirtless Larsen.

Still, Hollywood would soon begin to offer more challenging roles. Geraldine Keams (Navajo) made her movie debut as the tough “Little Moonlight,” who fights off her captors and easily handles a gun in Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1976. Keams has made recent guest appearances on the Native-centric series Rutherford Falls and Reservation Dogs.

But even without their conventional tribal regalia and braided hair, these women are expected to reinforce stereotypical roles.

Irene Bedard, best remembered for her voice as Disney’s animated Pocahontas (1995), can’t seem to shake the image of the slender and sexy Indian maiden despite having earned 75 credits for movie and TV appearances. Few recall that the Alaska Native actress was the lead in TNT’s Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee (1994), a true story about the 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation. Bedard was nominated for a Golden Globe for that role.

Elaine Miles (Cayuse) emerged in a strong supporting role as the Alaska Native receptionist in the modern-day CBS series Northern Exposure (1990-95), which boasted numerous Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. But in a personal interview in 2020, Miles revealed that producers asked her to fake a Native dialect — with her promptly telling them, “I don’t talk like that.”

Fortunately, streaming series have brought notable awards to today’s talented Native women. Jana Schmieding (Lakota) of Rutherford Falls and Native Canadian actresses Devery Jacobs and Paulina Alexis in Reservation Dogs have earned Independent Spirit and Critics Choice nominations, respectively.

Amber Midthunder’s starring role as a young Comanche warrior in Hulu’s Prey (2022) proved that Native women can carry an action epic. Prey captured numerous accolades, including Producers Guild and Emmy Award nominations for producer Jhane Myers (Comanche). Many critics wondered why the hit movie didn’t get a theatrical release.

Other talented Native women are on the horizon. Diane Fraher (Osage/Keetoowah Cherokee) directed, produced and wrote The Heart Stays, a coming-of-age story about two Osage sisters featuring Bedard and DeLanna Studi (niece of Wes Studi). The film will be distributed by Indican Pictures and is due in theaters in the spring.

But will Gladstone’s celebrated performance inspire the Academy to catch up and recognize Native women? Only then can the industry truly empower their voices. 

This story first appeared in a November standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.