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Acclaimed Native American Filmmaker Accused of Faking Her Ancestry

Heather Rae, who sits on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance, helped broker the Academy’s apology last year to Sacheen Littlefeather.

Award-winning filmmaker Heather Rae, who sits on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance, has been accused of faking her Native American ancestry. The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, which claims to be a Native group exposing “Pretendians,” is demanding Rae revoke her claim that she’s half Cherokee. According to the New York Post, research compiled by the group points to Rae having no ancestors recognized by the three Cherokee nations, and her parents’ divorce certificate reportedly listed them both as white. Census records show her maternal grandfather’s ancestors identified as white, according to the group. Rae, who claims that her mom was Cherokee and whose latest film was partly funded by the Cherokee Nation, helped broker the Academy’s apology last year to Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American actress who was blacklisted after declining an Oscar on Marlon Brando’s behalf. (Littlefeather was later accused by her sister of faking her Native identity.) Though plenty of activists have sought to call out Littlefeather, and now Rae, many jumped to her defense and decried the “witch-hunt.”