Middle-Pause Pump-Priming Prompt

In Honor of Women’s History Month, Who Would You Like to Lift Up?

Is there someone you’ve wondered about?

Now’s your chance.

Every year I try to go deeper than the sidebars and boxes in our history books, or newspapers, and bring to light someone I know little or nothing about.

Let’s face it, our history and stories have often been buried. And if we don’t dig them up and share them, who will?

So here’s this week’s Middle-Pause Pump-Prmimg Prompt: In honor of Women’s History Month who would you like to lift up? Is there someone you’ve wondered about?

If so, you can look them up and share their story here. Like I’m doing right now.

Sunday night we watched the Oscars.

When it came to the Best Actress in a Leading Role award, I rooted for Lily Gladstone. She plays Mollie Burkhart in director Martin Scorsese’s tragic historical drama, Killers of the Flower Moon. Gladstone is the fourth-ever Indigenous person nominated in the Best Actress category. Had she won, she would have been the first to ever receive the honor.

That went to Emily Stone for her role as Bella Baxer in Poor Things.

But since I got home from the local theater party where I watched the awards with friends, I’ve been learning all I can about Ms. Gladstone, who uses the pronouns she and they and is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Actress Lily Gladstone

According to an article in Harper’s Bazaar by Chelsea Sanchez, Lily Gladstone “is of Siksikaitsitapi and NiMíiPuu heritage — their father’s background is Blackfeet and Nez Perce, while their mother is white. They grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation in northwestern Montana, living there until age 11 years. Their family eventually moved to the suburbs of Seattle due to a “lack of economic opportunities,” they told The Guardian.”

But it was the reservation and life there that instilled in Lily the desire to be an actor. “I am shaped by my community — and I have been supported in my ambition to be an actor and storyteller.”

She attended the University of Montana (UM) on a Presidential Leadership Scholarship and was the first Native American to do so. She earned a BFA in acting/directing, with a minor in Native American studies. According to The Guardian, she graduated with high honors in 2008.

One of their theater instructors, Greg Johnson, said of their work, “There are a lot of talented kids at UM, but she’s always been a standout. She’s absolutely a transcendent actress. We were lucky to have her.” He added, “I think she’s going to weather the slings and arrows of the profession very well. She’s centered. She knows who she is.”

In a film industry whose treatment of Native and Indigenous people has been shallow and full of stereotypes at best, these are important attributes and strengths to have.

What’s she been in?

Lily Gladstone made their film debut in 2013, appearing in the dramas Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian and Winter in the Blood. They went on to star opposite Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams, and Laura Dern in the 2016 drama Certain Women as well as putting in a two-episode appearance as a grieving mother in Hulu’s Reservation Dogs.

Killers of the Flower Moon, tells the story of a series of murders perpetrated against members of the Osage community after oil was discovered on their land. Greedy whites, after the head rights to that black gold, conducted a reign of terror during the 1920s.

This was the same time when white racists attacked and burned an African American community in Tulsa known as Black Wall Street. There’s a scene in Killers where newsreel clips of that attack are shown at the local theater the newly wealthy Native people attend.

Ms. Gladstone plays Mollie Burkhart, who is married to Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. On set, Ms. Gladstone fully embodied her character. Again from Harper’s Bazaar:

“I felt her at moments living as Mollie,” [DiCaprio] told the outlet. “She embodied that character; she took on the soul of this woman and embraced herself into the Osage community.”

He added: “Once again, being from a different tribe, going to the Osage community, listening to [Mollie’s] story and direct descendants, and just embodied in every moral fiber of her being who Mollie was. [And she] expressed it through her performance in a very profound way.” He concluded, “She is the heart and soul of this movie, she really is.”

Ms. Gladstone was nervous about working with DiCaprio. Her hands were shaking. She worked through her nervousness and got to the point where, as she tells it, “I was just sitting across from an incredibly present, generous, immensely talented actor.”

I’m disappointed that Gladstone did not get the Oscar.

She did win a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama, making them the first Indigenous person to receive the award.

There she said, “This is a historic win, it doesn’t belong to just me.” She paid tribute to how her mom worked tirelessly to get their native Blackfeet language into the classroom so she and other children could grow up learning it.

She also described how sound mixers used to have Native American film actors speak their lines in English and then run those soundtracks backward to create an illusion of so-called native speech. Which was absurd, unnecessary, and just plain wrong.

All the more reason for the Academy of Motion Pictures to atone for some of this history via acknowledging artistic achievement by awarding Oscars to groundbreaking women like Lily Gladstone.

Unfortunately, they missed their chance. This year, anyway.

But now that the door’s open to telling the real stories of what went on in this brutal history of ours, there’ll be other opportunities for women such as Lily Gladstone to get all the honors they deserve.

So remember this name, Sisters. She’s just getting started.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Again the Pump-Priming Prompt: In honor of Women’s History Month who would you like to lift up? Is there someone you’ve wondered about?

We look forward to hearing from you!

Marilyn Flower’s a sacred fool who writes fiction, poetry, and blogs, inspired by the practice of SoulCollage®. Her books: Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cast Your Fiction, Creative Blogging, Bucket Listers. Follow her Sacred Foolishness or SoulCollage® for Writers, and Stay in touch!