Actress Lily Gladstone made history Sunday as the first indigenous woman to win a Golden Globe for best supporting actress. Gladstone portrayed Mollie Buckhart in the acclaimed film Killers of the Flower Moon. As she took to the stage, the two-spirit actress accepted her award with an emotional speech.
Gladstone began her speech in Blackfeet, the language of her tribe.
“This is a historic win,” she said, according to a translation of the speech featured in Vogue. “It doesn’t just belong to me.”
Turning then to English, Gladstone continued her speech, elevating the historic significance of the moment.
“I am so glad I can speak a little bit of my language, which I’m not fluent in, up here,” Gladstone said. The actress noted that “Native actors used to speak their lines in English, and the sound mixer would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera.”
Gladstone tells powerful and often forgotten story in Killers of the Flower Moon
Gladstone’s portrayal of Mollie Buckhart emulated the hardship and oppression faced by Native peoples across the country. As a member of the Osage nation, Buckhart and her community endured tremendous violence from white outsiders amid the oil rush.
Over a few years, scores of Osage men and women were brutally murdered in an attempt to steal tribal wealth.
Inspired by the book, Killers of the Flower Moon put an international spotlight on the Osage murders. Alongside stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Gladstone brough the personal stories of those who endured this ‘Reign of Terror’ to life.
Her work, and her Golden Globe win, serve as a pivotal and inspiring moment for young and aspiring Native actors.
“This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream and is seeing themselves represented in our stories told by ourselves, in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from within, from each other,” Gladstone said.
Lily Gladstone won for best actress not supporting actresss