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‘Bigger than the Oscars’: Blackfeet Nation honors Lily Gladstone with stand-up headdress

BROWNING — Wearing a white sequin shawl and matching ribbon skirt, esteemed actress Lily Gladstone kneeled on the floor of the new arbor on the Blackfeet Reservation as tribal elders placed a stand-up headdress atop her head.

Thousands of people who traveled across the country — and from Canada — to honor Gladstone watched in silence.

ID: Lily Gladstone and another woman in tradition attire including stand-up headdresses

Caption: Lily Gladstone, a Blackfeet actress who grew up in Browning and East Glacier, was honored by the Blackfeet Nation during a ceremony at the arbor in Browning on Tuesday. Gladstone, the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe award for her part in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” received a stand-up headdress, a great honor in Blackfeet culture. (BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian)

Gladstone stood and embraced tribal leaders. Then, with one hand over her heart and the other holding onto Charlene Plume, the elder who made her headdress, Gladstone danced in a circle around the arbor. Members of the Women’s Stand-Up Headdress Society, tribal leaders, dignitaries, students, teachers and children followed behind.

The sound of drums boomed, and the crowd erupted.

Gladstone, who grew up in Browning and East Glacier, recently rose to worldwide fame after starring in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” alongside Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.

She made history, becoming the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe award for best actress and the first to be nominated for best actress at the Oscars.

At Tuesday’s event — which included a grand entry, flag song, prayer, speeches from dignitaries, honor song and round dance — leaders thanked Gladstone for representing the Blackfeet Nation on the world stage and for being a role model for young people.

Following the ceremony, Lily Gladstone and hundreds of others performed a round dance around the arbor in Browning. Dignitaries and tribal elders thanked Gladstone for representing the Blackfeet Nation on the world stage and for being a role model for young people. (BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian)

“Because of you, rez kids on every reservation here and in Canada can chase their dreams,” Councilman Everett Armstrong said at the event. “Students, take a look at this accomplishment — it’s possible.”

Councilman Robert DesRosier delighted in the fact that Gladstone “is just like us.”

“She’s us,” he told the crowd before turning to Gladstone. “Lily, welcome home.”

ID: six women in stand-up headdresses, one is turned to another, laughing

More than 50 members of the Women’s Stand-Up Headdress Society — a group of contemporary Blackfoot women in the U.S. and Canada who own such headdresses — traveled to Browning to celebrate Gladstone. Theda New Breast, a member of the society, said Tuesday marked the largest gathering of stand-up headdress members to date. (BEN ALLAN SMITH, Missoulian)