Sacheen Littlefeather, as she was known, on September 17 of this year, shortly before her death, at an evening at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles
Image: AFP
When Sacheen Littlefeather died three weeks ago, there was great sympathy. Her performance at the 1973 Oscars is unforgettable. She was considered an icon, a true voice of Native Americans. Now her sisters say: It was all a lie.
At the beginning of October, Sacheen Littlefeather, one of the most important activists of the Native Americans of North America, died. Tributes to her death appeared around the world. According to the tenor, she gave the Native Americans a voice. Barely three weeks after Littlefeather’s death, the story turns. Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, Littlefeather’s sisters, Rozalind Cruz and Trudy Orlandi, claim she wasn’t indigenous at all. Her real name was Marie Louise Cruz, and her father, Manuel Ybarra Cruz, had neither Apache nor Yaqui ancestry, as Littlefeather had claimed.
Sacheen Littlefeather had caused an international sensation in 1973 when she took the stage at the Oscars in a beaded leather dress, turquoise jewelry and traditional pigtail clasps, identifying herself as Apache and “President of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee” (roughly: Committee for a positive image of Native Americans) and then, on behalf of Marlon Brando, declined his award for Best Actor in The Godfather – on behalf of Native Americans. “He asked me to say that he is unable to accept this generous award because of the entertainment industry’s treatment of Native Americans,” said the then 26-year-old, to applause and boos. Clint Eastwood, presenting the award for best picture, quipped that maybe he should do it on behalf of every cowboy ever shot in a John Ford western.