Lily Gladstone wins Golden Globe for best actress

Lily Gladstone, the female lead in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” made history Sunday, January 7, becoming the first Native woman to win the Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Film.

Gladstone comes from Kainai (Blood), Amskapi Piikani (Blackfeet) and Niimiipuu (Nez Perce) tribal nations.

Gladstone became the first Native woman nominated for the award for her role in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

The movie, based on a book of the same name by David Grann, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro. The story covers a series of murders committed against the Osage tribe as predatory prospectors moved in on the rights to Oklahoma oil fields in the 1920s. Gladstone plays Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman whose relatives are systematically murdered by her husband and his uncle in a bid to seize her family’s oil-rich Oklahoma land.

The winners were announced on January 7 at the Golden Globe award ceremony held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

In her speech, Gladstone spoke the Blackfeet language and thanked those who helped her reach this historic moment.

“I’m so grateful that I can speak even a little bit of my language, which I’m not fluent enough up here. Because 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 said. “This is an historic win. It doesn’t belong to just me. I’m holding it right now I’m holding it with all of my beautiful sisters.”

Gladstone went on to recognize the Native children who might be watching.

“And this is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented in our stories, told by ourselves, in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust,” Gladstone added.

At the ceremony, Gladstone wore a white strapless Valentino gown, a black opera coat and earrings from Blackfeet designer Lenise Omeaso of Antelope Women Designs, according to InStyle.

You can watch “Killers of the Flower Moon” on Apple TV+.