Three weeks after Sacheen Littlefeather’s passing, a writer has come forward with claims that the celebrated activist and former actress spent her life fraudulently posing as a Native American. Littlefeather died on Oct. 2 of metastasized breast cancer at age 75.

In a piece published in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Open Forum opinion section on Saturday, Jacqueline Keeler (Diné/Dakota) alleges that Littlefeather, who cemented her pop culture legacy when she took the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to decline the best actor Oscar on Marlon Brando’s behalf, was of Mexican and white descent. During her lifetime, Littlefeather, whose birth name was Marie Louise Cruz, identified as Apache and Yaqui on her father’s side. (That her mother was white has not been disputed.)

Keeler writes that according to her research of historical documents, the lineage of Littlefeather’s father traces to Mexico, not the Apache and Yaqui territories in Arizona, and that there are no records of family members’ enrollment in any tribes based in the land now known as the United States. Furthermore, Keeler interviewed Littlefeather’s younger sisters Rosalind Cruz and Trudy Orlandi, who said that Littlefeather lied about their family and invented her Native origins in an attempt to stand out in the entertainment industry. The sisters told Keeler that they had kept quiet, thinking Littlefeather’s fame would fade, but that they were troubled by seeing her “venerated as a saint.” They added that they learned of Littlefeather’s death through the news. On Friday, they appeared at Littlefeather’s funeral mass, where Cruz took to the pulpit and told the assembled mourners that their sister had lived with a lifelong mental illness and maligned her parents with her accounts of a difficult, abusive childhood.

In her column, Keeler writes that she began investigating Littlefeather’s history as part of her ongoing research into “Pretendians,” a list she began compiling in January 2021 of individuals who falsely claim Native identity. Keeler and her list are considered controversial within the Indigenous community, with some arguing that her research methods are unclear and that she has doxxed individuals without strong evidence. “I don’t want to give Keeler’s shtick oxygen,” tweeted Rutherford Falls showrunner and co-creator Sierra Ornelas on Saturday after Keeler’s column was published.

In an email response to The Hollywood Reporter, Keeler said she spoke to Littlefeather’s sisters last week for more than six hours. Keeler noted that this marked her first conversation with them and that she came into contact with the sisters after Cruz noticed Keeler’s tweets sharing research and documentation about their father’s family. According to Keeler, these tweets spurred Cruz to contact the White Mountain Apache’s Office of Vital Records before the interviews with Keeler took place. 

This summer, Littlefeather returned to public consciousness when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences formally apologized to her for the mistreatment and industry blacklisting she experienced after the 1973 Oscars. (She was first accused of being a performer for hire posing as a Native American back then.) Littlefeather was feted at the Academy Museum during an evening of reflection and celebration of Native American culture in September, two weeks before her death.

The Academy declined to comment on the latest accusations.

Oct. 22, 3:35 p.m. Updated with Keeler’s email response.