Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama at the 2024 Golden Globes. Gladstone, who uses she/they pronouns, won for their role in Killers of the Flower Moon. They started their speech in the Blackfeet language, remarks that they later said they use often as an introduction (per EW.) “It’s often how I introduce myself in a new group of people, especially when it’s significant,” she told the press pool. “One of the first things we’re taught is you say your name, you say where you’re from, and you say hello to everyone… it was one of the more natural things I could do in the moment.”
Gladstone thanked her mother for teaching her the Blackfeet language, despite not being Blackfeet. “I’m so grateful that I can speak even a little bit of my language — which I’m not fluent in — up here,” they said. “In this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English and then the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish native languages on camera.” Gladstone dedicated the award to “every little res kid, every little urban kid, every little native kid out there who has a dream to see themselves represented, and our stories told by ourselves in our own words. With tremendous allies and tremendous trust from with and from each other.”
