In a historic triumph, Lily Gladstone has become the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe for best actress, a spokesperson for the awards organization said.
Gladstone played Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman whose relatives are murdered as part of a plot to take their fortune, in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Gladstone, of Blackfeet and Nez Percé heritage, is only the second Native actress to receive any Globe recognition: Irene Bedard was nominated in 1995 for “Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee,” a television movie.
After a standing ovation, an overwhelmed Gladstone spoke a few lines in the Blackfeet language and then said, “I have no words.” He thanked his director and his co-stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, and then dedicated the award to “every little rez kid” who had a dream.
As to whether Gladstone is the first Indigenous person to win a Globe overall, it’s unclear. Singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, who has said she was born to an indigenous woman, won a Golden Globe in 1983 for the song “Up Where We Belong” from the film “An Officer and a Gentleman.” But her heritage has recently been questioned.
There have been other indigenous nominees. This year, the late musician Robbie Robertson, who was Mohawk and Cayuga, was nominated for the original music to “Killers.” Going further back, Chief Dan George was nominated for the 1970 comedy western “Little Big Man” and Adam Beach for the 2007 TV adaptation “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”
“Killers,” based on the nonfiction book by David Grann, was re-conceived from the beginning to focus on the relationship between Mollie and her husband, Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is involved in a conspiracy to kill their relatives.
