Bertrand was born in Blue Island, Illinois, the daughter of Lois June (Gouwens) and Rolland F.

[5] In 1971, she played Connie in the episode "Love, Peace, Brotherhood, and Murder" on the fourth season of the television show Ironside.

A decade later, she appeared in a minor role in 1982's Lookin' to Get Out, a film co-written by and starring her former husband, Jon Voight.

[6] Bertrand and her partner John Trudell founded the All Tribes Foundation to support the cultural and economic survival of Native peoples.

[7] By 2007, the foundation had issued over $800,000 in grants to reservation-based programs that strengthen tribal ways of life and safeguard a future for Native communities.

[11] Following her legal separation from Voight, Bertrand began a relationship with documentary filmmaker Bill Day.

[8] After a nearly eight-year battle with ovarian and breast cancer, she died aged 56 on January 27, 2007, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in the company of her children.