Robert Redford, who died Tuesday at 89, was known for his deep commitment to activism, especially for Native American rights and the environment.
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1, 2017. FILE - Robert Redford attends the premiere of Netflix's"Our Souls at Night" on Sept. 27, 2017, in New York. FILE - Actor Robert Redford, left, and director Sydney Pollack appear at the Cannes Film Festival before the presentation of their film"Jeremiah Johnson" in Cannes, France, on May 6, 1972. FILE - Actors Robert Redford and Jane Fonda hug as they pose for photographers at the photo call of the film"Our Souls at Night" during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Sept. 1, 2017. at traditional cultural dances at the Hopi village of Hotevilla in New Mexico. It was more than 30 years ago and he was serving as executive producer of the 1991 release “The Dark Wind," a drama about Navajo life. Redford stood out for his Hollywood looks and for his un-Hollywood behavior, from his earnest desire to learn more about the tribe’s spiritual knowledge to his visits to the Navajo Nation, where Sekayumptewa’s father served as the dean of students at the tribal college and would show Redford’s movies at the student union building.“Even at home, he would bring that camera and film home to us, put up a sheet and we would invite our neighbors and the kids and we would all be there in our living room, watching these movies,” the 54-year-old Sekayumptewa, who is Navajo, Hopi and Sac and Fox Nation, said of Redford.who died Tuesday at age 89, was hardly the only liberal activist to emerge out of Hollywood, but few matched his knowledge and focus, his humility and dedication. Fellow actors and leaders of the causes he fought for spoke of his unusually deep legacy, his fight for Native Americans and the environment that began at the height of his stardom. In the mid-1970s, around the same time he was appearing in such blockbusters as “The Sting” and “The Way We Were," he immersed himself in the emerging environmental movement. He successfully opposed a power plant being built in his adopted state, Utah, and lobbied for the landmark bills the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. He also joined the board of the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council, where he remained a guiding force up to his death. “His legacy was extraordinary,” says NRDC CEO and President Manish Bapna. “One of the things that was most extraordinary about him was that he understood the power of storytelling. He could talk about climate change and the toll it was inflicting on people and communities — the fisherman coping with rising seas, a family fleeing for their lives from a raging wildfire. He would record messages, give talks or speak in front of Congress."“He chose his words carefully, and every word he said was profound. He said we must continue to find ways to tell stories that reach people,” Bapna said. Redford had a longtime affinity for the environment. After growing up in Southern California in the 1930s and '40s, he was disheartened to see Los Angeles transform after World War II into a mecca of pollution and traffic jams. In the early 1960s, when he came upon Provo Canyon, Utah, during a cross-country motorcycle trip, he was so awed and invigorated by the landscape that he eventually settled in the area.and the Vietnam War. Redford, as much as anyone, helped make the environment an issue for the Hollywood elite, whether for Fonda or, a fellow NRDC board member who called Redford's death “a huge loss to our community” and cited his legacy an actor and activist.In 2013, Redford joined with then-Gov. Bill Richardson to create the Foundation to Protect New Mexico Wildlife to fight efforts by a Roswell, New Mexico, company and others to slaughter horses. The following year, the foundation reached an agreement with the Navajo Nation to manage thousands of wild horses on the reservation and keep the animals from being sent to slaughter houses. For Redford, the wild horse was representative of the American West. His advocacy also was channeled through the nonprofit group Return to Freedom, Wild Horse Conservation. The group “We have all lost an irreplaceable artist, activist and environmentalist,” said Neda DeMayo, founder of RTF. “Robert Redford was and is an iconic and inspiring human being forever interwoven with the beauty and majesty of the West. I feel very grateful to have known him and to have had his support.” Redford's activism extended to some of his film projects, whether the probes of the political system in “All the President's Men” and “The Candidate” or the drama “The Milagro Beanfield War,” in which a local resident fights a real estate mogul for control of his land. His final work was “Dark Winds,” an AMC show that premiered in 2022 and is based, like “The Dark Wind,” on the fiction ofJohn Wirth, the series showrunner, said that “Dark Winds” wouldn’t exist without Redford, who served as an executive producer and appeared in a short cameo that aired earlier this year. The show, Wirth said, gives audiences a look into the Navajo community, with actors and writers largely holding Native identities. Redford “endeavored to give people a shot at making art, you know, where they maybe hadn’t had the ability to have access to mainstream media.”Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Itzel Luna in Los Angeles; and Sian Watson in London contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Climate Entertainment Julia Louis-Dreyfus Leonardo Dicaprio Bill Richardson Tony Hillerman Environment Manish Bapna Jane Fonda John Wirth U.S. News
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Robert Redford remembered for his deep legacy in environmental activism and Native American advocacyRobert Redford, who died Tuesday at 89, was known for his deep commitment to activism, especially for Native American rights and the environment.
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