The Fight Over Sacheen Littlefeather’s Heritage Takes a New Twist
Just days before the 96th Academy Awards, the family of activist Sacheen Littlefeather—born Marie Cruz—are being confronted with new claims that she was indeed the Indigenous woman she portrayed herself to be on stage during one of the most famous moments in Oscar history. And her two sisters tell The Daily Beast that the renewed inquiry has brought the trauma of their strained relationship back to the surface.
In 1973, Littlefeather got on stage to decline the Academy Award, on behalf of actor Marlon Brando, who had won Best Actor for The Godfather. Dressed in buckskins and presenting herself as a Native American, Littlefeather called out the industry’s misrepresentation of Native people and in that moment became known as a heroine for speaking up, and for her activism that followed.
Weeks after Littlefeather’s death in October 2022, Native journalist Jacqueline Keeler (Navajo, Yankton Sioux) published an investigative piece in the San Francisco Chronicle that deemed her an “ethnic fraud.” Citing family stories by Littlefeather’s sisters Rosalind Cruz and Trudy Orlandi, Keeler reported that Littlefeather was not part of the White Mountain Apache or Yaqui tribes that she claimed, but was instead of Mexican and European descent. The Academy stood behind Littlefeather, saying in a statement that they recognize “self-identification.”