Maria Louise Cruz (November 14, 1946 – October 2, 2022), better known as Sacheen Littlefeather, was an American actress and activist for Native American civil rights who after her death was accused by family members and journalists of being a pretendian.
Littlefeather represented Marlon Brando at the 45th Academy Awards (better known as the Oscars) in 1973, where she on Brando's behalf declined the Best Actor award that he won for his performance in The Godfather. The favorite to win, Brando boycotted the ceremony as a protest against Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans and to draw attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee. During her speech, the audience's response to Brando's boycotting was divided between booing and applause.
After the Academy Award speech, Littlefeather worked in hospice care. She continued her activism for Native American issues including healthcare and unemployment, and produced films about Native Americans. In June 2022, the Academy sent Littlefeather a statement of apology that was read in full at An Evening with Sacheen Littlefeather on September 17, two weeks before her death.
Littlefeather said her father was of Apache and Yaqui ancestry and her mother was of European descent. Shortly after Littlefeather's death, Navajo writer and activist Jacqueline Keeler interviewed Littlefeather's two sisters, who said that their family is not Native American and that Littlefeather fabricated her Native American ancestry. They also said that their father, who was born in Oxnard, California, was of Spanish-Mexican descent and had no tribal ties.
Early life
Littlefeather was born Marie Louise Cruz or Maria Louise Cruz on November 14, 1946, in Salinas, California. Her mother, Geroldine Marie Cruz (née Barnitz), was a leather stamper of French, German, and Dutch descent, and was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. Littlefeather's father was Manuel Ybarra Cruz, a saddlemaker of Mexican descent who was born and raised in Oxnard, California.
Littlefeather repeatedly claimed that her father had White Mountain Apache and Yaqui ancestry. However her sisters, as well as researchers who have looked into the claim, confirm that he was of Spanish-Mexican ancestry with no known ancestors who had a tribal identity in Mexico, and he had no connection to the Yaqui or White Mountain Apache tribes of Arizona.
Both Geroldine and Manuel were saddlemakers. Geroldine learned the craft from Leo Leonard, who owned Leonard Saddle Company in Santa Barbara, and Manuel learned to make saddles as a boy in San Francisco. By 1949, they had moved to Salinas and opened up their own business, Cruz Saddlery. Geroldine Cruz continued to operate the business after her husband's death in 1966.
Littlefeather attended North Salinas High School from 1960 to 1964 and was active in 4-H, winning awards in home economics categories such as food preservation and fashion. After high school, she attended Hartnell Junior College and studied elementary education.
Littlefeather said that around age 19, she spent a year in a psychiatric hospital after previously hearing voices that pushed her to a suicide attempt, recounting what happened during a three hour visual history interview in 2022 with the director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. According to Littlefeather, the institution was a "hell hole" and doctors used what she said was "psychodrama" role-playing her parents "while black-hooded figures listened in a dim-lit room" to help her "reconstruct memories of childhood abuse and abandonment." Littlefeather said she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1969, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue a modeling career with a portfolio of photos taken by Kenneth Cook of Cook's Photography. She said she had been treated with thorazine and other medications but "mostly stabilized with much help" from the San Francisco Bay Area Native American community.