These celebrities who support Native American rights are real superstars, in our eyes!
By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
It’s a sad reality that history books not only neglect to tell the real story of the indigenous people of the Americas. In fact, they also downright lie.
Take the feast of Thanksgiving for instance.
The allegedly idyllic partnership between 17th Century European Pilgrims and New England Indians that involved sharing a meal back in 1637 didn’t quite go as we were told.
The true story is that after they had saved the Europeans from starving to death, the Europeans killed them. Yep, it’s true. In the predawn hours, the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries. They were then shot, clubbed to death, or burned alive in their homes.
On that same day, the Massachusetts Colony Governor, John Winthrop, proclaimed a ‘Thanksgiving’ to celebrate the safe return of all colonial volunteers. Those same ‘volunteers’ who had by then massacred 700 Pequot Indians.
Let’s not hide the truth
There can be no arguing against the reality that Europeans have brought a very dark history to the Americas. A history involving genocide, theft and environmental destruction. But the damage we have done is not just hiding in the past. Still today, treaties made with the Natives are continuously broken by the ‘white men’ (namely, CEOs of major corporations) who continuously encroach on was has been legislated as Native territory, especially if any natural resources are found there.
The fact is, all North and South Americans (and Australians and New Zealanders, for that matter) who are not indigenous are living on stolen land. It was gained by a very deliberate genocide, marginalisation and exploitation of indigenous people.
Although there was a large civil rights movement led by the likes of Martin Luther King, the Black Panthers and Malcolm X in the 60s and 70s, this hasn’t translated into furthering Native rights much.
At this point, you may be wondering: is there any good news about the status of North America’s indigenous people? Well…kind of.
Leo DiCaprio made headlines for making a short speech about Native rights at the Golden Globes. And fortunately, a small but powerful number of other celebrities have been slowly but surely shedding light on the plight of the First Nations people of North America, too.
To celebrate their efforts, here’s our list of 10 awesome celebrities who support Native American rights.
10 Celebs Supporting Native American Rights
1. Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio made a short but strong statement during his acceptance speech for best actor at the Golden Globes: “I want to share this award with all the First Nations people represented in this film and all the indigenous communities around the world.”
DiCaprio, who played the lead role as a fur trapper in The Revenant, concluded his speech by saying: “It is time we recognise your history and protect your indigenous lands from corporate interests and people who are out there to exploit them. It is time that we heard your voice and protected this planet for future generations.” It was a great speech, sure. But unfortunately the film The Revenant continued to stereotypically depict Native Americans as little more than violent peoples. So, hmm.
2. Channing Tatum
The hunky star of Magic Mike is another of the celebrities who support Native American rights. That could be because he has Native American blood running through his veins himself. In fact, his solidarity towards indigenous cultures has brought him all the way to the Ecuadorian Amazon to meet the Sapara people.
His visit to the rainforest was to learn more about the culture of the indigenous people there. But he also wanted to help them with their struggles. The Sapara are now facing an 11th round of oil exploitation and the loss of their culture.
Former Director of Fundacion Pachamama, Belen Paez, and Sapara leader, Manari Ushinga, guided Channing on his journey through the Amazon. Tatum also learned more about a new eco-lodge project, called Naku, that the Sapara people are planning as a source of income and alternative to money from the oil industry.
3. Leonard Cohen
A true artist, the late, great Cohen supported the native people of his birthplace, Canada, through art; namely in Beautiful Losers. This was the second novel by the writer and musician, and takes place in the Canadian province of Quebec during the 17th century. The Mohawk saint Kateri Tekakwitha‘s tale is interwoven with a love triangle between a Canadian folklorist, his Native wife and a Member of Parliament leader of the separatist movement.
You can watch Cohen read a bit of the novel, below. He has also stood up for First Nations People in Canada by signing the Leap Manifesto.
Image: Gorupdebesanez
4. Anthony Kiedis
The lead singer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers is another of the celebrities who support Native American rights that may have Native blood. He is said to be of either Mohican or Apache ancestry on his mother’s side. It’s a heritage he is very proud of, and he has tributed it with a tattoo of a Chief Sitting Bull on his upper right arm and a large stylised Haida thunderbird on his back.
Kiedis has written several songs supportive of Native rights, including Kick a Hole in the Sky, Fight Like A Brave and Ghost Dance, based on a real dance that North American Indian tribes did to protect themselves from the white settlers and the religion they imposed upon them.
Image credit: rhcprock.free.fr
5. Neil Young
Back in 2012 Neil Young put a Native horseman on the cover of his album Psychedelic Pill. But he has always had a fascination with Native American culture. Native themes feature in much of his music, including “Cortez the Killer,” “Pocahontas,” and “Broken Arrow”. But let’s not forget that his backing band, Crazy Horse, is named after the Oglala Lakota leader of the Great Sioux Nation. Crazy Horse fought fiercely (and sadly failed) to protect the land promised to his people from being revoked after gold was discovered on it.
It was a deja vu situation for Native Indians when former Canadian PM Harper made deals with oil companies. These corporations stripped the Athabasca First Nations of their land rights. Why? Money, of course. It was discovered oil could be extracted from the tar sands on the land designated as an Indian reserve. Young was right there to support their struggle, though they didn’t succeed.
6. David Suzuki
According to the Canadian environmental activist, scientist and academic David Suzuki, Aboriginal people are our best bet for protecting the planet. Why? Because he says there was a time when human kind was creative in finding ways to exploit surroundings. Our brains were our great evolutionary advantage, conferring massive memory, curiosity, inventiveness and observational powers.
But with the overuse of technology, we are deleting our natural, intuitive skills. This is why Suzuki thinks indigenous knowledge, built up over millennia, will never be duplicated by computers. It has a better propensity in relating with the flora and fauna of Planet Earth. And it helps us to gain an almost spiritual perspective on our place in nature.
Suzuki has been supporting Indigenous values for many years now. He strongly believes that we should be turning to their wisdom to help live in harmony with nature and save the planet.
Image: Holger Motzkau 2010, Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons
7. Zack de la Rocha
Zack de la Rocha is one of the biggest and most well-respected names in alternative music, known equally for his militant political activism as for his passionate vocal delivery. In the nineties he rose to fame as frontman for Rage Against the Machine, and his band’s first video, Freedom (see below) served as a mini-documentary to highlight the injustice and brutality by FBI agents who were sent to ‘neutralise’ 200 Native American activists on the Pine Ridge Reservation after they protested a mining company’s move into their land.
He is also passionate about and the plight of Leonard Peltier, who was wrongly convicted of killing two of the agents in the attack. Zack is constantly fighting for the rights for the oppressed, including the Native Americans, even though Rage Against the Machine has broken up.
Image: Paul Familetti
8. Tom Morello
The Harvard graduate and exceptional guitarist made his name with Rage Against the Machine and then later, Audioslave. Morello has been a relentless activist fighting for the oppressed and discriminated, including Indigenous people. So much so, that back in 2014 he was honoured with The Spirit of Courage Award for fighting for a fairer and more just world for Native Americans.
He is also an environmental activist, and supported Ralph Nader’s presidential candidacy based partly on his pro-environmental position.
He recorded a version of ‘This Land is Your Land’. Unlike most versions, his includes the final, original and often censored verse. This verse makes the well-known tune what it was actually meant to be – a protest song.
Image: – Wikicommons
9. Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash is yet another of the celebrities who support Native American rights who had some Native blood in him. Cherokee, to be exact. That fact, along with a strong sense of justice, provides fuel for the passion that pervades the album that almost ruined his career: “Bitter Tears”.
Most of the songs on “Bitter Tears” come from the songbook of a Pima-Indian, Peter LaFarge. However, Johnny Cash wrote “Apache Tears” and “The Talking Leaves”. The album contains nothing but outstanding songs, many of which refer to real people or events.
For example? “As Long as The Grass Shall Grow” sums up the history of broken treaties. After the American Revolution, the United States found itself very weak. To placate the American Indians (many of who fought on the side of the British), the US government offered numerous peace treaties promising land “as long as the grass shall grow and the waters flow”. US Courts later interpreted such phrases as pure metaphor, and denied claims to land that the treaties promised.
Cash received a lot of flak for making the record. But he stuck his neck out even farther when he learned of a boycott against the song, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” This is about a Pima Indian who helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima, then died a disillusioned alcoholic at 32. Cash took out a full page ad in Billboard magazine in protest.
10. Marlon Brando
True, the ‘greatest actor in the world’ is another of the celebrities supporting native American rights who no longer with us. But his name deserves a (very) honourable mention here.
He arguably did more for Native rights than any celebrity or politician has since. It is well know that to protest the fact that Native Americans were only ever portrayed as ‘savages’ in films, Brando refused to collect his Oscar for the Godfather. Instead, he sent Native rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather to deliver a speech. Much of it was cut off on television. But you can see the whole thing here.
Brando had a true passion for Native rights, and was deeply involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM) with Leonard Peltier. Rage Against The Machine, mentioned above, wrote a song about him. Peltier was wrongly accused of killing two FBI agents during the early 1970s. He sought Littlefeather’s help to protest the ongoing Wounded Knee Incident standoff. This began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 people occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Brando witnessed first hand the brutality of the National Guard towards Native Americans when they killed four of the protesters and wounded many more there.
But the disrespect and denigration of indigenous people still continues today: recently Littlefeather, who is still alive, was belittled by comic Dennis Miller on the Jay Leno show, when he referred to her the ‘stripper’ who accepted Brando’s award.
Image: Getty Images
Do you know of any other celebrities who support Native American rights? Please let us know in the comments, below!
Main image: Wikipedia
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Sacheen Littlefeather isn’t even really indigenous. Her sister came out and said she was a fake and their family has no indigenous ancestry.
Oh wow, really? Got any proof?
Hi, Jaquline Keeler is a notable Native activist, journalist and has recently done a dive into the accusations that Little feather wasn’t Native, sadly while she and others indeed come up empty handed with any Native blood ties for this woman, Marlon Brando was acting in good faith on her word and his contributions are amazing and deep
Oh wow! That’s really interesting info, Jay. I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing!