Kolby KickingWoman
ICT
BROWNING, Mont. — “It really is a full circle moment, it feels amazing,” said Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone.
The pride of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Gladstone, who is Siksikaitsitapii and Nimíipuu, returned home to the Blackfeet Reservation March 26 for a day of celebration in her name.
The Blackfoot Confederacy consists of the Kainai-Blood Tribe, Siksika, Peigan-Piikani and Aamskapi Pikuni, and the territory stretches from half of Saskatchewan and Alberta to the northern part of Montana.
More than a thousand people from around the country and even from Canada showed up to the newly remodeled All Event Center in Browning, Montana, to celebrate and see Piiṫǎak̇ii (Eagle Woman), be honored and receive a stand-up headdress.
The day was filled with honor songs, speeches, lilis, and warhoops for the actress and her historic Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award wins, as well as being the first Native American to be nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her role as Mollie Burkhart in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
There was a palpable buzz in the air as tribal leaders, North American Indian Days powwow royalty, school board members, students, community members, and more joined Gladstone for a grand entry to kick off the event.
Blackfeet tribal business council member Everett Armstrong welcomed Gladstone home, thanking her for her representation of the tribe and for being an inspiration to Native youth.
“Thank you for showcasing our precious gift of our language on the world stage, in front of millions and millions people across the world. Thank you for everything that you’re doing, for following your dreams,” Armstrong said. “Because of you, rez kids on every reservation in the United States and Canada, are now inspired. They’re inspired to chase their dreams, inspired that dreams come true. They’re inspired that everything and anything is possible.”
Headdresses are earned
The headdress transfer was done by elder Charlene Plume Prairie Chicken, Kainai-Blood Tribe, a member of the Women’s Stand-Up Headdress Society who also made the headdress for Gladstone.
“Lily, it’s such an honor for me to make your headdress and also to transfer it to you,” Plume said. “Due to you being from the Blackfoot Confederacy, it’s such an honor.”
Noting the significance and honor of receiving a headdress, Siksika Chief Ouray Crowfoot said headdresses are not just given away but are earned.
The Women’s Stand-Up Headdress Society has been around for centuries, said Theda New Breast, Blackfeet, who is a member of the society. The society is a group of Blackfoot women who have been transferred the rights to wear and own headdresses. She added Plume Prairie Chicken is the only Blackfoot woman who makes stand-up headdresses because it’s supposed to be a woman that makes it for women.
New Breast said there are more than 200 members and nearly half were in attendance for Tuesday’s celebration of Gladstone. She added that the headdresses “have power and the power that they have is to uplift people.”
“It’s an on-scene holy energy that uplifts and makes people happy,” New Breast said. “So for us, it was epic. Because usually there’s like 15 of us, 20 of us, 25, but that was historically the most headdresses that came together in the past couple of centuries.”
Throughout the day, many spoke to the impact Gladstone is having on Native youth. Many moments have gone viral on social media of Native youth watching Gladstone on television while giving acceptance speeches.
Jerel White Grass, Blackfeet, was watching the Golden Globes at her grandparents’ and was shocked, in a good way, when she heard Gladstone speak their shared language.
White Grass echoed the sentiments that Gladstone is an inspiration and is “pushing the youth to pursue their dreams.”
“I feel that inspiring (she’s) youth of all people of color, especially Natives because Natives are labeled as savages or we still live in teepees and stuff like that, I feel like she’s bringing awareness out to how our community is, (how our) culture is and how important it is to us,” said White Grass, who is a high school senior and serving as the current Miss Blackfeet.
Before addressing those in attendance, Gladstone slowly worked her way through a long line of people, many of whom came with gifts and were waiting to share a moment with the star.
After a short introduction in Blackfeet, she thanked all those who traveled from near and far to come for the celebration, especially the elders, saying, “I love you all.”
Having grown up on the Blackfeet Reservation, Gladstone said she knows it can be hard but that “all good things are hard things.”
“I feel so lucky and so blessed that I’m Blackfeet and I get to be here,” she said.
“I will be back again, kiakitamatsin (I will see you later).”
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