Amid allegations that Sacheen Littlefeather faked a Native American identification for greater than 50 years, others have come ahead to supply examples of how the late Bay Area activist obscured, embellished or fabricated particulars about her life, together with her purported work with dance pioneer Michael Smuin on one in every of his most acclaimed ballets.
Paula Tracy, the ex-wife and former dance associate of Smuin, who died in 2007, mentioned in an e-mail shared with this information group that Littlefeather exaggerated her participation on his 1984 work, “Song for Dead Warriors.” Smuin’s ballet was impressed by the life and loss of life of activist Richard Oakes, one of many Native American college students who led the occupation of Alcatraz in 1969.
“I did not realize that Sacheen Littlefeather was claiming to have been a consultant for the ballet,” mentioned Tracy, who was married to Smuin on the time. “She definitely was trying to insert herself into the production.”
Littlefeather, born Marie Louise Cruz in Salinas, made Academy Awards historical past when she appeared on behalf of Marlon Brando to reject his finest actor Oscar on the 1973 ceremony, to protest the unfavorable stereotyping of American Indians in leisure and to convey consideration to the Wounded Knee Occupation protest in South Dakota. Her poised demeanor and essential message about Hollywood illustration introduced some skilled alternatives, together with the possibility to “work with Smuin,” then the co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet.
In a three-hour oral historical past for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum, Littlefeather mentioned she and a pal, Native American dancer Jasper Redrobe, had been introduced in as “dance consultants,” for the ballet.
Littlefeather, who died Oct. 2 in Novato at age 75, mentioned she labored on the ballet for 5 years. “It was a beautiful, beautiful project to work on for … many years,” she mentioned. Littlefeather is right when she says that the ballet gained Smuin an Emmy Award after it aired on PBS’ “Great Performances” sequence. It additionally traveled to Washington, D.C., the place it was carried out on the Kennedy Center in 1985.
Littlefeather mentioned in her interview that she attended a efficiency of the ballet — probably on the Kennedy Center — with actor Joanne Wodward. “She viewed it and cried when she saw it,” Littlefeather mentioned. “She said to me and Michael Smuin: ‘This is not a ballet. This is real life.’”
The San Francisco Ballet confirmed that Sacheen was credited as “an advisor” for the 1984 telecast, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem lists her as “Native American adviser” for its manufacturing. But Tracy challenges the concept Littlefeather repeatedly labored on the manufacturing, together with for so long as 5 years.
“The Native American consultant for the ballet was a dancer who was recommended by, and related to, Anna Halprin,” Tracy mentioned, referring to Redrobe and Bay Area avante-garde dancer and choreographer Anna Halprin. “(Redrobe) was a tremendous help and taught the dancers (and Michael) traditional Native American dance steps which were included in the choreography.”
Otherwise, Tracy remembered Littlefeather visiting their house as soon as and showing on the opening evening social gathering with a number of “celebrity” Native Americans.
The allegations that Littlefeather falsely claimed to be White Mountain Apache and Yaqui have ignited debate in Native American circles about “Pretendians,” individuals who falsely declare to be Native American for fame, cash or different alternatives. The allegations had been made public in October by Littlefeather’s sisters, Trudy Orlandi and Rosalind Cruz, after the Academy celebrated her as an icon of range in its glittery new museum. The Academy reaped optimistic P.R. when it threw a gala celebration for her earlier than her loss of life and apologized for the boos she confronted throughout her speech and for being “professionally boycotted” within the years after.
Scholars and activists say that issues about Littlefeather’s “ethnic fraud” are bolstered by tales she advised about herself over time that both can’t be verified or which might be refuted by different individuals and historic data. Helene Hagan, a historian, anthropologist and former long-time pal of Littlefeather, has referred to as on the Academy to right the story it tells about her in its museum, saying she acted out “many roles” in her “search for recognition and fame.”
Over the years, Littlefeather mentioned in several interviews that she grew up impoverished – even in a shack with no bathroom – and because the daughter of an abusive, alcoholic Native American father and a White mom, each of whom had been too mentally unwell to take care of her. Orlandi and Cruz say these claims are false and that their father was Mexican American and that nobody of their household ever talked about having Native American ancestry.
Research by Native American journalist Jacqueline Keeler, which included data going again to 1850, uncovered no ties between the Cruz household of Mexico and the White Mountain Apache and Yaqui tribes. Dina Gilio-Whitaker, a author and lecturer of American Indian Studies at CSU San Marcos who as soon as was commissioned to ghost-write Littlefeather’s memoir, mentioned Keeler’s analysis is strong. She mentioned Littlefeather by no means talked to her about her household connections to the White Mountain Apache or Yaqui tribes.
Littlefeather pushed the narrative over time that she was from an oppressed individuals, whereas enjoying to the stereotype of the “Indian princess,” Gilio-Whitaker mentioned. Littlefeather advised The Guardian in 2021 that her mother and father, Manuel and Geroldine Cruz, met in Arizona however that they couldn’t marry in that state as a result of as a result of mixed-race {couples} had been “illegal” so that they moved to Salinas, California. Keeler has printed Manuel and Geroldine’s 1946 marriage license from Pinal County Arizona on-line.
Littlefeather’s sisters say their mother and father raised them in a loving, middle-class house. Orlandi mentioned she and her older sister Marie shared bunkbeds and that their father, who was hearing-impaired, by no means abused any of his daughters. The sisters attended a personal Catholic college, loved 4-H tasks, dance classes and entry to a household horse. Their White grandparents lived on the identical property and helped take care of them.
In some interviews, Littlefeather mentioned she began to reconnect along with her Native heritage through the Alcatraz occupation. On her official web site, Littlefeather mentioned she was one of many “original” occupiers, however she backtracked in different interviews to say she solely visited on weekends. LaNada War Jack, one other of the coed leaders of the occupation, advised this information group that Littlefeather was “never on the island,” although different students say individuals got here and went so it might be laborious to know for certain.
War Jack mentioned individuals within the Bay Area Native American neighborhood “applauded” when Littlefeather spoke on the Oscar ceremony however “we knew she wasn’t Native.” War Jack mentioned she additionally “became a joke” when Playboy printed nude pictures of her after her Oscars speech. War Jack mentioned no self-respecting Native girl would pose nude in a nationwide journal.
Following the Oscars, Littlefeather mentioned the FBI advised the studios to blacklist her from film roles. The FBI didn’t reply to a request for remark about Littlefeather’s claims, however her title doesn’t seem in its on-line library of information on counter-culture activists launched underneath the Freedom of Information Act.
Hagan mentioned Littlefeather the truth is picked up small roles in comedies and low-budget movies after the Oscars, together with within the cult film “The Trial of Billy Jack,” her IMDB web page reveals. If her Hollywood profession didn’t pan out, it might be on account of her restricted performing vary, mentioned movie historian Angela Aleiss, co-author of “Hollywood’s Native Americans.”
Hagan described different situations when Littlefeather embellished biographical particulars. Hagan questions Littlefeather’s assertion that she labored “with” Mother Teresa in caring for individuals dying of AIDS within the Nineteen Eighties. Hagan recollects Littlefeather volunteering with Mother Teresa’s hospice group in San Francisco however mentioned she solely may have managed a photograph op when the Calcutta-based nun came over. More significantly, Hagan debunked Littlefeather’s declare that she was “valedictorian” when she obtained a bachelor’s diploma in holistic well being and vitamin from Antioch University West in San Francisco. That diploma allowed her to show programs in Indigenous drugs across the nation, however Hagan obtained a letter from the college’s registrar, which mentioned she obtained no such diploma.
Some of Littlefeather’s oft-mentioned credentials gave the impression to be verified by printed accounts. She was listed as a board member of the American Indian AIDS Institute in a 1988 e-newsletter, and he or she inspired Tamalpais High School within the late Nineteen Eighties to section out its Indian mascot, in accordance with a 2013 article within the college newspaper.
Another curiosity within the Littlefeather saga got here in 2022 from Liv Ullman, the Swedish actor who first encountered Littlefeather on the 1973 Oscars when she and Roger Moore had been presupposed to current Brando his finest actor award.
During a 2022 profession retrospective on the British Film Institute, Ullman talked about working into Littlefeather 45 years later in San Rafael, at a 2018 exhibiting of the documentary, “Liv & Ingmar – A Love Story” As the 2 girls chatted at a reception, Ullman mentioned Littlefeather advised her, “I’m not Indian at all.” Ullman shrugged and mentioned, “She might have tried to be funny. I don’t always understand Hollywood jokes.” Ullman’s remarks, viewable on YouTube, come on the 1:41-minute mark:
Source: www.bostonherald.com”