Who was Sacheen Littlefeather? What we know about the actress who refused Oscar

Sacheen Littlefeather (born as Maria Louise Cruz) was an 'American Actress and activist for Native American Civil Rights', born on November 14, 1946. She is mostly known for refusing the Best Actor Award on behalf of Marlon Brando at the 45th Academy Awards on March 27, 1973.

Sacheen Littlefeather was married first to an engineer, Michael Rubio, and later, she married Charles Koshiway Johnston. Littlefeather had aspirations to become an actress since she was young and managed to get radio and television commercial credits.

She was also an activist for the Native Americans, their rights and representation. Though reports suggest that she had worked for their benefit, she had also made a lot of claims and statements when it came to her career and life, some of which were unfounded.

Though Littlefeather said that she has Native American ancestry via her father, whom she claimed was of Apache and Yaqui ancestry; later, her siblings revealed that she was of Spanish-Mexican ancestry. They also refuted Littlefeather's claim that their father was an abusive alcoholic.

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What went down at the 45th Academy Awards with Sacheen Littlefeather?

During the 45th Academy Awards, Marlon Brando was announced the Best Actor for his performance in The Godfather. But, instead of Marlon, Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage.

According to The Guardian, Littlefeather, who was only 26 years old at the time, made it to the stage wearing a "tasseled buckskin dress, moccasins" rejected the award on behalf of Marlon, who decided to reject the award because of the mistreatment of Native Americans by the film industry. And Littlefeather gave a 60-second speech that she reportedly improvised because she was not given enough time to read the eight-page speech that Marlon gave her.

Littlefeather's experience at the ceremony was later described by the academy itself as "unwarranted and unjustified." According to reports citing Littlefeather, people were hurling "stereotypical Native American war cries at her" and other "demeaning" gestures.

Later, in 2022, the Academy officially apologized to Littlefeather for the experience she had at the event.

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Sacheen Littlefeather's Siblings Revelations

After her death on October 2, 2022, people, including journalists and her family (specifically her siblings, Rosalind Cruz, and Trudy Orlandi), said that Littlefeather did not have Native American heritage like she claimed, and her siblings further accused her of lying about alleged physical abuse by her father.

According to The Guardian report citing an Opinion article by the San Francisco Chronicle, Orlandi and Cruz said:

"It’s a lie. My father was who he was. His family came from Mexico. And my dad was born in Oxnard [California]," - Orlandi

"It is a fraud. It’s disgusting to the heritage of the tribal people. And it’s just … insulting to my parents," - Cruz

According to the sisters, Littlefeather "assumed" their father's life story (who was deaf since the age of nine and had an alcoholic and violent father) as hers. According to them, she did not like being Mexican, and hence, " it was better for her that way to play someone else."