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Indian Country is celebrating the historic win of Golden Globe winner Lily Gladstone for Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Osage News captured the excitement of a crowd gathered for an Osage Nation watch party in Oklahoma on Sunday night.
The room full of people cheered as Gladstone’s name was announced as they watched the televised awards ceremony.
Gladstone thanked the Osage Nation in her acceptance speech, which she opened in the Blackfeet language.
She paid tribute to her Native language and talked about the importance of Native languages in film.
Among Gladstone’s acknowledgements were to her fellow Native actors in the film, director Martin Scorsese, and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.
She had a special message for Native youth.
“This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented in our stories told by ourselves in our own words with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from each other.”
Gladstone was honored for her role as Osage woman Mollie Burkhart in the film, which tells the story of the murder of Osage people in Oklahoma during the 1920s for oil money.
Gladstone is said to be the first Indigenous best actress Golden Globe Awards winner.
Photo: Jim Kohl / Anchorage Museum
In Alaska, the Anchorage Museum is no longer charging an admission fee for Alaska Native visitors.
The new policy went into effect at the start of the year.
APRN’s Liz Ruskin reports.
Museum Director Julie Decker says no proof of identity is required.
“People can state that they’re Alaska Native … at the front admission desk, and they will not be charged admission.”
Decker says the proposal was not controversial for the museum staff or the board.
She points out that a significant portion of the museum’s collection comes from Alaska’s Indigenous cultures.
“I think it’s really a celebration of our place, of who we are. I think it’s recognizing the Alaskans and people who have made this their home for millennia.”
Michael Fredericks is Yup’ik and grew up in Anchorage.
She says the museum’s work to amplify Indigenous identity attracted her, specifically its very visible land acknowledgement on the building.
“When the signage went up on the side of the museum that says, ‘This is Dena’ina Elnena’. I was pretty blown away by that.”
The cultural affirmation prompted Fredericks to become a museum member for the first time, and to begin bringing her son there.
Now she chairs the museum’s governing board.
Fredericks, who owns a strategic consulting firm, says she’s excited by the new admission policy.
When she was growing up, she says her Yup’ik identity made her feel that she was “other,” even in her own hometown.
She didn’t feel the museum was meant for her.
“By … giving Indigenous people free admission, it’s not just about saying, ‘Hey, … we’re eliminating the financial barrier to this place.’ It’s saying, ‘This is your place, you know, this is your place, you come in and make this your place even more.’”
The free admission applies to general entry. Alaska Native visitors still have to pay for special events, workshops and classes.
The Navajo Nation is objecting to NASA and a private company’s rocket launch to the moon carrying human remains.
The spacecraft launched from Florida Monday.
The Navajo Nation says the moon is sacred and the placement of human remains on the moon is desecration.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren says even though they’re opposed to this journey to the moon, the tribe is not opposed to science or space exploration, but he’s calling for tribal consultation.
Nygren says he laid out the tribe’s concerns with a last-minute meeting with the White House and some federal agencies on Friday.
The rocket is scheduled to land on the moon next month.
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