Key Sacheen Littlefeather supporter accused of faking Cherokee identity

Heather Rae is the latest high-profile figure accused of falsely claiming a Native American heritage, several months after she helped organize a tribute to alleged Pretendian Sacheen Littlefeather.

In a new twist in the ethnic fraud allegations against Sacheen Littlefeather, a prominent filmmaker in Native American circles who organized a film industry celebration of the late Bay Area activist as a Native American icon, has herself been accused of faking claims of Cherokee heritage.

The New York Post and other outlets are reporting on allegations made against Heather Rae, who produced “Frozen River” and other films and who serves on the Indigenous Alliance of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Alliance organized a gala tribute for Littlefeather in September, a few weeks before her death at age 75 and before her sisters came forward to say that Littlefeather spent the past 50 years falsely claiming to be White Mountain Apache and Yaqui.

The allegations against Rae come from the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, an organization that examines claims of Native ancestry from individuals and businesses, The Guardian said. 

The alliance, citing research published in a blog post, told the New York Post that public family records do not show any ties to tribal heritage for Rae, even though she has long said she was born in California to a Cherokee mother.

The blog, “Fake Indians,” said Rae has claimed to be of Cherokee descent throughout her career, allowing her to become a central figure in Native American media production and act as a gatekeeper for other Native artists. The alliance accuses her of usurping “real American Indian voices and perspectives” and being a “Pretendian,” someone who falsely claims to be Native American for fame, money or other opportunities, the New York Post said.

Rae’s latest project, “Fancy Dance,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was partly funded by the Cherokee Nation, the New York Post said.

Rae, at best, “is 1/2048th Cherokee,” the blog post said. “Even a cursory look into her family tree points to this career being built on a lie: Heather Rae is a White woman who is wholly lacking even the most minute bit of Native American ancestry, Cherokee or otherwise. Put simply, she has none. Zero.”

These allegations against Rae should complicate matters for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its handling of the Sacheen Littlefeather case. Littlefeather enjoyed her 15 minutes of global fame when she was asked by Marlon Brando to refuse his best actor Oscar at the Academy Awards ceremony in 1973 to protest the negative stereotyping of Indians in Hollywood films and TV. The aspiring actor stood on the Oscars stage in a buckskin dress and identified herself as Apache and as a spokesperson for Indian rights.

Littlefeather was booed by some in the audience and later claimed she was blacklisted by Hollywood, a claim that hasn’t been verified. She actually landed a few parts in mostly low-budget or independent films and promoted herself as White Mountain Apache and Yaqui as she continued to give interviews over the years and to get work as a Native American adviser for the San Francisco Ballet and as a teacher of Indigenous medicine.

Before her Oct. 2 death, the Academy garnered a lot of positive P.R. by issuing an apology for the treatment she received at the 1973 ceremony. Rae, as co-chair of the Indigenous Alliance, reportedly was instrumental in getting the Academy to issue its apology. Since joining the alliance in 2016, Rae has become a key figure in its Native American outreach efforts, the New York Post said.

Rae also helped organize the gala celebration for Littlefeather at the glittery new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. During the celebration, Littlefeather shared stories about her activism and life history, some of which can’t be verified or that have since been disputed, including her harrowing tale about being abandoned by an abusive, alcoholic Indian father and a mentally ill White mother.

Littlefeather’s sisters, Trudy Orlando and Rosalind Cruz, say Littlefeather actually was born Marie Louise Cruz in Salinas and raised in a loving, middle-class home by a Mexican American father and a White mother. An investigation into their father’s Mexican ancestry by Native American journalist Jacqueline Keeler, going back to 1850, uncovered no ties between the Cruz family of Mexico and the White Mountain Apache or Yaqui tribes.

The Academy has thus far refused to address its Littlefeather controversy, even though  the fraud allegations raise questions about the organization’s commitment to scholarship and historical accuracy in its new museum.

The Academy also continues to identify Littlefeather as White Mountain Apache and Yaqui on its website, and to showcase her 60-second Oscars speech in a museum gallery presenting top moments in Oscars history. The Academy moreover included her in an online version of its annual In Memoriam tribute to film industry figures who died in the past year.

Historians and activists have told this news organization that the allegations should at least prompt the Academy to investigate and determine whether it should amend its presentation of Littlefeather in its gallery spaces or in podcast and video interviews posted on its official channels.

In an email to this news organization earlier this month, the Academy Museum refused to answer multiple questions, including whether it tried to verify Littlefeather’s claims of tribal affiliation, and whether it vetted other statements she made about her family and her activism.

Rae and her Indigenous Alliance co-chair Bird Runningwater also did not respond to requests for comment earlier this month about if and how they decided that Littlefeather should be celebrated and whether they vetted biographical information she has offered. Rae also didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday after news reports were published about the allegations against her.

Moreover, Rae and the Academy didn’t respond to questions about whether the producer was involved in the Academy’s decision to accept “self-identification” for people making claims about their heritage. In early February, a spokesperson said that the Academy — “with support of its Indigenous Alliance” — “recognizes self-recognition.”

In an interview with the New York Post, the director of the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds dismissed “self-identification” in the case of someone like Rae.

Director Lianna Costantino told the New York Post: “Being an American Indian person is not just about who you claim to be, it is about who claims you.”

“And it’s much more than just race,” Costantino continued. “We are citizens of sovereign nations. Being an Indian is a legal, political distinction.”

The Cherokee Nation also appears to be distancing itself from Rae, according to Indianz.com, a Native American news and information site.

The Cherokee Nation is distancing itself from a prominent Hollywood filmmaker, confirming Heather Rae isn’t a tribal citizen and hasn’t benefited from film incentives offered on the reservation. #Pretendian @TheAcademy @sundanceorg @IllumiNative #latimerhttps://t.co/guVcU0cZnH

— Jacqueline Keeler (@jfkeeler) March 27, 2023

The tribe’s business division confirmed that it had provided funding to support Rae’s new film, “Fancy Dance.” The funding was based on production expenses for filming within the Cherokee Nation Reservation and “for the more than 200 background actors and cast and crew who could provide verification of citizenship in a federally recognized tribe,” said Brandon Scott, the vice president of enterprise communications for Cherokee Nation Businesses.

Scott said Rae did not benefit personally from the incentive program because she’s not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. “She has no affiliation with Cherokee Nation Film Office and was not included in any funding it provided to ‘Fancy Dance,'” Scott said.

Rae has produced multiple films that center around Native characters and stories, including “Frozen River” in 2008, which was nominated for two Oscars and which won awards from the Sundance Institute, The Guardian said. She previously directed Sundance’s Native program. Her husband, Russell Friedenberg, is also a film producer and her daughter, Johnny Sequoyah, is an actor.

Rae previously said that she is not an enrolled member of a tribal system, The Guardian reported. But she appeared to justify her lack of documented tribal identity in 2017 by saying that there are many Native people who can’t meet the requirements for membership because of the “diaspora,” referring to U.S. government policies that separated Native children from their families. For that reason, Rae suggested, some Native people may not be able to produce documents showing connections to a registered member or “blood quantum,” a minimum amount of Indian blood.

Liza Black, an associate professor at Native American and Indigenous studies at Indiana University, agrees that these “roadblocks” are an issue for Native people who have genuine claims to tribal affiliation. But in an interview with this news organization, she said that alleged Pretendians are in a different category and don’t deserve allowances.

“They are people who are genuinely lying about who they are,” Black said.