She may not have taken home an Oscar, but Lily Gladstone will soon take home the title “doctor.”
The University of Montana will present honorary doctorates in May to the Siksikaitsitapii and Nimíipuu actress, as well as to Carol Tatsey-Murray, a Blackfeet educator who has spent a lifetime preserving Native culture.
The Montana Board of Regents approved the university’s request March 15 to present the doctorates during commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 11. The university has invited both Gladstone and Murray to be commencement speakers.
Gladstone won best actress awards from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” She became the first Native woman nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, but lost to actress Emma Stone on Sunday, March 10.
Murray is a renowned educator, tribal elder and former college president working to protect and enhance Blackfeet culture.
Both are University of Montana graduates. Gladstone earned an undergraduate degree in acting and directing with a minor in Native American studies in 2008. Murray earned an undergraduate degree in elementary education in 1982.
“Lily and Carol serve as shining examples to Montana students of how a UM education can propel you toward future success,” university president Seth Bodnar said. “These two women are making real change in the world, and we are extremely proud to present both of them with one of UM’s highest honors, an honorary doctorate.”
Gladstone will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, and Murray will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Education.
Raised in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation, Gladstone’s first acting gig was as an evil stepsister in a traveling Missoula Children’s Theatre production of “Cinderella,” and she recalls ballet lessons in the basement of a Browning church. Her family later moved to the Seattle area, where she finished high school.
Gladstone returned to Montana as the first Native student to earn a Presidential Leadership Scholarship from the university’s Davidson Honors College – the university’s most prestigious recognition for incoming students. She became deeply engaged with the School of Theatre and Dance, performing in plays and student films.
After graduation she toured with the university’s Montana Repertory Theatre productions of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Miracle Worker.” She also wrote a play, directed children’s theater in Seattle and worked on a project that allowed her to perform one-woman plays about Native American boarding schools, Japanese internment camps and migrant farmworkers.
Then in 2012, she launched her film career in “Winter in the Blood,” a film based on a book by Blackfeet author and former University of Montana faculty member James Welch. The film crew had many ties to the university and to the city of Missoula.
“My whole career was launched in Montana,” Gladstone said in a university press release. “It’s going to be something that I’m endlessly proud of.”
Other film roles followed, including her breakthrough in 2016’s “Certain Women” that earned wide critical acclaim. She also appeared in “First Cow,” The Unknown Country” and Hulu’s “Reservation Dogs.”
She has worked tirelessly to educate non-Native people that the Indigenous people of America are still here.
“In the process of learning about the horrific Reign of Terror, remember that the Osage remain,” Gladstone said. “Native people remain. And this story is a lot to take in. Be kind, and please be gentle with each other. There is much to process, and much to heal.”
For her part, Murray is from Badger Creek near Browning and now lives along the Two Medicine River on the Blackfeet Reservation. According to her nominators, she is an educator who has dedicated her life to the preservation, promotion and revitalization of Native culture, particularly for her people of the Amskapii Piikanii (Blackfeet Nation).
Murray earned an associate’s degree from Blackfeet Community College in 1982. Then after attending the University of Montana, she earned a master’s degree in adult higher education from Montana State University. She went on to work 36 years for Blackfeet Community College, where she was president for eight years, interim president for six years and vice president for six years. She was the first tribal college graduate to become a tribal college president.
During her time at the college, Murray secured more than $20 million in faculty development projects and helped launch construction of the Beaver Painted Lodge building on the Blackfeet Community College campus.
Karla Bird, the University of Montana‘s tribal outreach coordinator, said Murray established Blackfeet Studies at the tribal college, “demonstrating her unwavering commitment to preserving and promoting Native American Heritage through education.”
Murray also has worked for repatriation of Blackfeet cultural and ceremonial items, and many of these sacred items now have been returned to the Blackfoot Confederacy.
“This work goes beyond the mere act of repatriation,” said Melissa Little Plume-Weatherwax, a Blackfeet Community College official. “It represents the restoration of the spiritual identity of the Blackfoot people, allowing future generations to connect with ancestral knowledge systems.”
