Sacheen Littlefeather (left) appeared on the 1973 Oscars to say no a Greatest Oscar trophy for Marlon Brando, introducing herself as Apache and saying "The Godfather" actor couldn't settle for due to "the therapy of American Indians as we speak within the movie business. " However her sister, Rosalind Cruz (proper), mentioned that the girl born Marie Louise Cruz was not Native American.
Like 85 million different tv viewers around the globe, Rosalind Cruz wasn’t anticipating to see her sister onstage on the 1973 Oscarswhen Marlon Brando received Greatest Actor for “The Godfather.“
“Good day, my title is Sacheen Littlefeather. I’m Apache and I’m president of the Nationwide Native American Affirmative Picture Committee. I’m representing Marlon Brando this night and he has requested me to inform you … that he very regretfully can not settle for this very beneficiant award. And the explanations for this being are the therapy of American Indians as we speak by the movie business … “
Rosalind, then 15, gawked in disbelief from their grandparents’ dwelling in rural Salinas, Calif., as Littlefeather — who she knew as her 26-year-old sibling, Marie Louise Cruz — carried out what would grow to be essentially the most pivotal 75 seconds of her appearing profession.
However there was one downside. “She lied,” Rosalind, now 65 and dwelling in Lake County, Montana, advised The Submit.
Now, weeks after Littlefeather died of breast most cancers at age 75, Rosalind reveals to The Submit’s JOSHUA RHETT MILLER what actually occurred — and who “Sacheen Littlefeather” actually was.
We have been mortified.
Earlier than Marie left for the Academy Awards, she advised us: “Simply watch it. I can’t inform you something extra, however simply watch.” Just a few years earlier, my older sister had began her appearing profession on the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, however she was nonetheless desperately attempting to make a reputation for herself.
So once we noticed Marie determine herself as “Apache,” my grandparents and I have been blown away. I'll always remember how we simply stared at one another completely awestruck.
The stunning second marked the primary time, to my data, that my eldest sister claimed she was a part of a tribe — a bogus identification she intentionally concocted whereas sporting a borrowed buckskin gown for optimum impression.
My sister Marie, who had already spent a yr in a psychological hospital after attempting to kill herself when she was 19, then assumed that pretend picture for practically 50 years. Her elaborate ruse denigrates the reminiscence of our late mother and father, Manuel Ybarra Cruz and Geroldine Marie Cruz, who have been native Californians with no ancestral tribal ties.
I’m now prepared to revive their honor by lastly telling the reality: Our household has no recognized Native American heritage, together with hyperlinks to Arizona’s White Mountain Apache and Yaqui tribes, as Marie falsely claimed. Our father’s Hispanic lineage traces again to Mexico, whereas Mother’s ancestors have been French, German and Dutch.
Like myself, my two older sisters, Marie and Trudy, have been born and raised in Salinas, the place we lived in a two-bedroom dwelling with my mother and father. This was not the rickety shack that “Sacheen” began describing to reporters within the mid-’70s. The home was instantly behind our mother and father’ customized saddle store, Cruz Saddlery, within the city’s Santa Rita part, the place we stored our horse, Zurc.
As a household dwelling in rural California, we grew our personal fruit and greens; figs have been Marie’s favourite. We additionally sewed our personal garments, which is the place Trudy and I imagine Marie received the inspiration for her Native American alter ego. The thread and ribbon we used again then was manufactured by Sasheen Ribbon Firm. She simply took the second ‘S’ out and put a ‘C’ in there. That’s all she did to begin dwelling this fantasy.
I’m nonetheless uncertain as to what actually impressed Marie to decide on “Littlefeather,” a surname she adopted after highschool to “replicate her pure heritage,” her official web site claims. However many dramatic tales she advised over time have been simply baloney — just like the one about our deaf father giving her that title as she danced round him with a feather in her head, or claiming that he was a violent alcoholic.
These tales of torment or allegations of abuse got here years after Dad died of most cancers in 1966 at simply 44 years outdated. They turned more and more vicious, too — like when Marie claimed he tried to run her over together with his truck. However these have been simply extra phony narratives from a pathological liar.
Our mom developed dementia round 1978 and couldn’t defend herself. She handed away in 2009. In the meantime, Marie was busy manipulating everybody along with her American Indian act, mendacity so continuously that Trudy and I couldn’t sustain. But Marie’s unchallenged accounts by no means included a phrase about her sisters. We merely didn't exist.
We lived out within the nation and didn’t have many guests, so nobody shamed our household in public. Even so, Marie did her greatest to embarrass the Cruzes perpetually when she appeared in Playboy about seven months after the Oscars. We have been a conservative household, we went to Catholic faculties — we weren’t prepared for all of this.
Marie’s sham declare of Native American heritage was nothing greater than an opportunistic method for an aspiring actress to bust into Hollywood. She labored her method into Brando’s orbit whereas dwelling in San Francisco, the place she noticed “The Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola as he moved into an outdated Victorian home within the Pacific Heights neighborhood. Marie launched herself and struck up a friendship with him.
With Coppola’s assist, she then seized on Brando’s rising curiosity in Native American advocacy by writing him a letter claiming to be an Indian activist. All the time the opportunist, Marie finally managed to win over the film star by professing to be another person. She realized Brando had already advocated for the Black Panthers and was now switching gears, moving into American Indians. She knew that.
I used to be embarrassed greater than the rest after I noticed my sister in that unfamiliar gown on Hollywood’s grandest stage. Now we’re pretending to be Indians? You simply don’t do stuff like that. However Marie noticed it as a solution to advance her profession and worm herself into the business.
I first tried to disclose this nasty secret about 15 years in the past, even reaching out to “The Oprah Winfrey Present” at one level. I wished to reveal Marie as a mentally unstable individual unfairly trashing our household with the identical outdated deception. However who was going to hearken to me? She was the massive saint promoting the act to individuals shopping for the tickets.
I hadn’t talked to Marie in 13 years when my pal texted me to verify the information on Oct. 3, a day after she handed away. Trudy and I had dealt along with her psychological sickness our complete lives and I couldn’t take it anymore. Through the years, Marie ramped up her hurtful slander, deeply damaging our household solely to feed her fraudulent persona. She by no means did point out, nonetheless, the inconvenient truth of her two organic sisters not being Native Individuals similar to her.
Marie additionally maintained she was “red-listed” due to her Oscars speech — unable to land even the smallest function because of the direct orders of a minimum of J. Edgar Hoover. However my sister was as soon as once more blinded by her grandiose narcissism. Hoover died on Could 2, 1972, practically 11 months earlier than “Sacheen” took that stage.
Hoover gave orders from the grave, apparently. Now do you see how her thoughts labored? And nobody challenged her on it.
Once I discovered final month in regards to the Academy formally apologizing to Marie for being blacklisted following her Oscars stunt, all I might assume was they received swindled. And the humorous factor? The Academy Museum honored her as Native despite the fact that she’s not. Our household is just not Native American. Are you able to think about how silly these guys look?
[The Academy Museum acknowledged claims disputing the late actress’ background on Friday in a statement to The Post. “This is something both Littlefeather and the Native American community have addressed continuously since the 1970s. Native American and Indigenous identity is deeply complex and layered, especially in the United States, and these communities have long battled erasure and misrepresentation. With the support of its Indigenous Alliance — an Academy member affinity group — the Academy recognizes self-identification.”]
Marie stored her scheme going till the very finish, telling the captivated Los Angeles crowd about how she took the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage in 1973 with dignity, grace and humility as a “proud Indian” girl. Paradoxically sufficient, she insisted she needed to “communicate the reality” all these many years in the past.
Marie, who had been recognized with Stage 4 breast most cancers years earlier, then accepted the Academy’s misguided mea culpa and requested all Native Individuals in attendance to face. She then referenced “our individuals,” praising them as survivors like herself whereas insisting that standing for reality would maintain her voice alive.
My sister’s closing phrases at that so-called “Night of Dialog, Therapeutic and Celebration” have been “I stay Sacheen Littlefeather.” You already know, why quit the half after 50 years?
The aim of me coming ahead now could be to deliver my mother and father’ honor again and to inform the reality. By doing that, I’ll naturally unmask my departed sister. White Mountain Apache tribal leaders haven't any file of any “Sacheen Littlefeather” — the fictional character Marie created to fill an enormous void as a result of she didn’t like herself. Could she relaxation in peace, though I hope she grasped the agony she induced my household along with her lifetime of lies.
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