What ethnicity is actress Sacheen Littlefeather? Family background information
At the 45th Academy Awards in 1973, Sacheen Littlefeather, an American Indian actress and civil rights activist, portrayed Marlon Brando.
Littlefeather turned down Marlon’s Best Actor nomination for his work in The Godfather.
Marlon, the overwhelming favorite to win, skipped the ceremony in opposition to how Native Americans are portrayed in Hollywood and to raise awareness of the Wounded Knee impasse. Due to Marlon’s boycott, the audience booed and clapped during Sacheen’s speech.
She received a letter of apology from the Academy in June 2022, which she read aloud on September 17 at a party with Sacheen Littlefeather.
Sacheen Little Feather
What ethnicity is actress Sacheen Littlefeather?
Daughter of a Native American father and a European American mother, Sacheen Littlefeather.
During the occupation of Alcatraz in 1969, the actress became involved in the Native American militant scene. Sacheen appears to be of European ancestry.
She attended North Salinas High School from 1960 to 1964 and participated in 4-H, where she won awards in the fashion and food preservation categories.
At California State University, Sacheen pursued her interest in Native American identity while studying drama and speech.
Family background of Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather
On November 14, 1946, Sacheen Littlefeather was conceived. His mother, Geroldine Marie Barnitz, was a leather stamper from Santa Barbara, California with ancestry in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
His father, Manuel Ybarra Cruz, was from Oxnard, California, of White Mountain Apache and Yaqui ancestry. Both of his parents were saddlers.
The civil rights activist claimed in 1988 that her parents, along with her two younger sisters, lived next door to her maternal grandparents, Marie and Gerold “Barney” Barnitz.
Does Sacheen Littlefeather identify as an American Indian?
The answer is that Sacheen Littlefeather is a Native American. In 1969 Littlefeather became a member of the United Bay Indian Council.
The actress joined the Alcatraz occupation in 1970, but couldn’t live on the island full-time because she was a student, so she took the alias Sacheen Littlefeather.
Littlefeather went to a meeting between the Federal Communications Commission and representatives of various minority groups on March 6, 1973, to discuss the portrayal of minorities on television.
The civil rights activist claimed she helped send two Indian nurses to Wounded Knee in an interview published just before she made an Oscar appearance. She also claimed that she and seven other Native Americans had renounced their American citizenship.
