Lily Gladstone may have missed out on winning an Oscar, but she received perhaps an even bigger honor when she was presented a stand-up headdress from elders of the Blackfeet Reservation.
According to Tulsa World, being given a stand-up headdress is a rare honor, as they are made from eagle feathers, bison hide, porcupine quills, ermine hides, and willows, and are considered sacred and symbolic of both the natural and supernatural worlds.
Gladstone became the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress and the first to be nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. During her Golden Globe acceptance speech, she notably spoke in the Blackfoot language.
Thousands of Indigenous people from across the US and Canada traveled to attend Gladstone’s ceremony held in Browning, Montana on Tuesday night. Theda New Breast, a member of the Women’s Stand-Up Headdress Society, told Tulsa World that it marked the largest gathering of stand-up headdress members to date. “This is way bigger than the Oscars,” she said. “As Lily grows, she’ll bring us with her. She’s bringing all the women with her.”
Speaking at the ceremony, Blackfeet Tribal councilman Everett Armstrong told Gladstone that, “Because of you, rez kids on every reservation here and in Canada can chase their dreams.”
In her own remarks, Gladstone said, “I feel so lucky and so blessed that I’m Blackfeet and I get to be here. tI’s a really special thing to be who we are, to be from where we’re from. And I know sometimes it can be a really hard thing, too, but all good things are hard things.”