At least Senator Elizabeth Warren had the sense to drop the act long before she became famous. Hollywood, activism and academia though seem to be full of perpetual fake Indians. And, unlike Iron Eyes Cody, of the crying Indian garbage ad, some do real damage.
Sacheen Littlefeather spent her “career” as an activist. And like most Indian activists, she was a fraud.
You might not know her name, but you’ve probably seen the video that made her famous. In 1973, actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage at the Oscars dressed in a beaded buckskin dress in place of Marlon Brando, after he was awarded Best Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.” Claiming Apache heritage, she spoke eloquently, to a backdrop of boos, of the mistreatment of Native Americans by the film industry and beyond.
Her sisters have come forward, long after the fact, to reveal that she was half-Mexican, not Indian at all.
“It’s a lie,” Orlandi told me in an exclusive interview. “My father was who he was. His family came from Mexico. And my dad was born in Oxnard.”
“It is a fraud,” Cruz agreed. “It’s disgusting to the heritage of the tribal people. And it’s just … insulting to my parents.”
Beyond the Oscar appearance, Cruz took part in the Alcatraz occupation (raising the question of whether there were any actual Indians there, or just cosplaying leftists) and attacked Nixon while serving as a spokeswoman for the National American Indian Council which was notorious for the same thing.
It’s not as if this would have been hard to figure out. She never looked like anything except a bad actress portraying a cheesy Hollywood idea of an Indian woman.
Cruz claimed that ‘Littlefeather’ came from the name her father called her and that her mother took her away from her abusive father when she was 4. She tried monetizing her fake Indian routine with cheesy movies and a Playboy spread before Brando picked her up for a little epater le bourgeois. And yet people kept buying her nonsense.
The Academy museum, which infamously made no mention of the Jewish figures in Hollywood history, had a special event celebrating her in September.
Sacheen invites you to a special celebration of live Native American performances featuring a long-awaited statement of apology from the Academy. The evening’s program will include a land acknowledgement courtesy of Virginia Carmelo (Tongva/So. CA), and a conversation between Sacheen and Academy Member, producer, and co-chair of the Academy’s Indigenous Alliance Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache/NM).
It was all fake all along.
And Cruz is one of countless fake Indians who pervade the media, academia and the entertainment industry because they provide a politically convenient tool for attacking America.
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at this Indian Country profile of her nonsense.
It was a quiet protest, delivered as Sacheen Littlefeather lived her life — with dignity, grace, compassion and honesty, the way her ancestors would have wanted.
As the first Indigenous woman ever to stand at the podium at the Academy Awards, she put a spotlight on the inhumanity, stereotypes, disrespect and derision that Indigenous people faced in film and television, and brought the Wounded Knee protest to an international audience.
“I did not go up there in protest, with an up-in-the-air fist, with profanity, with a loud, screeching voice,” Littlefeather, now 75, Apache and Yaqui, told ICT in a recent interview. “The way that I went up on stage was prompted by my ancestors. I prayed that my words would meet not with deaf ears but with open hearts and open minds.”
Especially the honesty part. Did everyone really not know? I doubt it. But politics trumps truth.
She described herself as an activist? Why are all activists leftist? Why don’t we hear from conservative activists?
What are conservatives going to agitate for? More Social Security and Medicare benefits?
Can you picture American conservatives protesting to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, public education, the government safety net? I can’t.
Freedom, Liberty, and Capitalism mean standing on your own two feet, carrying your own weight, paying your own way, no more government safety net. Capitalism means if you can’t afford to pay for your needs or desires yourself you must rely on the voluntary help or charity of your family, neighbors, or strangers.
That’s something few if any conservatives are willing to do. So the vast majority of conservatives are really fighting for a smaller welfare state, not Freedom, Liberty, or Capitalism. But that’s precisely like telling your cancer surgeon “Please only remove 40% of the cancer, the cancer wasn’t so deadly then, I’m sure it won’t grow back this time.”
Dignity and honesty culturally appropriated for the greater good I guess.
Mossab smoked the wtc
Who would mistake her for an Apache? Only someone who knows nothing of Indians. And yea, that’s what Apaches were known for, their “compassion.”
Her father being from Mexico does not rule out his being part Apache.
Or doing a rain dance.
Or part Comanche, or part Irish, or Ukrainian, or a smattering of Italian. Who knows? Mexicans come from all over, same as North Americans.
Hey Tagfu….a scam is a scam. Stop the silly comments.
Her father being from Kiev does not rule out his being part Apace either but her siblings saying she’s not kinda rules her out. No excuses for lying leftists. We’ve had enough liars after Covid and global warming.
Irrelevant pedantry.
Or practicing cannibal sacrifice.
Littlefeather is a member of the Ersatz tribe. The names of her relatives have been published. The middle and last names indicate heritage that is Spanish and Basque (Ybarra).
Ah yes, indeed. The Ersatzi.
The souvenir warriors of the west.
Every tomahawk and ashtray handcrafted by their tribal affiliate in the PRC.
Noted for mercantile scalping of pale-faced tourists.
“…total fugazee”
Ralph Cifaretto
The Legendary Lost Fukawee Tribe.
Most Indian activists are frauds?????? I don’t suppose anybody can present evidence to support this racist, mean-spirited slander.
Sacheen Little Faker, Cody, Warren, the douchebag who wrote “I Buried My Heart at Wounded Knee” or whatever………yep. All frauds.
Chief Iron Eyes Cody has top honor of being the phoniest indian of them all.
Guess that issue of Playboy will become more of a collectible than ever.
If you are interested in the extensive lies that Sacheen Littlefeather fed the press and the Academy of Motion Pictures, please read my letter to AMPAS , followed by a letter from her sisters , which both address the fraudulent aspects of Marie Louise Cruz impersonaton of an American Indian. Letters available at https:://www.helenehagan.com/academy-museum-letter
The press has for the most part avoided to address the fact that Sacheen was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a late adolescent who spent a year in St Agnew facility for the Insane in Santa Clara, California, was released under a Federal program of outpatient treatment, was kept under heavy antipsychotic medication all her life, went in and out of mental wards repeatedly, and lived on benefits (federal and state) as she could not ever hold a regular job. She never obtained any college degree, and the Antioch University degree she claimed in Nutrition with a minor in Native American Medicine was inexistent. She faked it all. She did not even hold an accredited certificate in massage which she performed on unsuspecting individuals without any training whatsoever. , for cash unreported to authorities.,