Maria Louise Cruz[1] (November 14, 1946 – October 2, 2022), better known as Sacheen Littlefeather,[2][3] was an American-born actress and activist for Native American civil rights.

The favorite to win, Brando boycotted the ceremony as a protest against Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans and to draw attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee.

[8][9] Her mother, Geroldine Marie Cruz (née Barnitz), was a leather stamper of French, German, and Dutch descent, and was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California.

[9][11] However, her sisters, as well as researchers who have looked into the claim, confirm that he was of Spanish-Mexican ancestry with no known ancestors who had a tribal identity in Mexico, and he had no connection to the Yaqui or White Mountain Apache tribes of Arizona.

[10] Littlefeather attended North Salinas High School from 1960 to 1964 and was active in 4-H, winning awards in home economics categories such as food preservation and fashion.

[18][19] Littlefeather said that around age 19, she spent a year in a psychiatric hospital after previously hearing voices that pushed her to a suicide attempt, recounting what happened during a three-hour visual history interview in 2022 with the director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

According to Littlefeather, the institution was a "hell hole" and doctors used what she said was "psychodrama" role-playing her parents "while black-hooded figures listened in a dim-lit room" to help her "reconstruct memories of childhood abuse and abandonment.

[21][22] She said she had been treated with thorazine and other medications but "mostly stabilized with much help" from the San Francisco Bay Area Native American community.

[9][42] Littlefeather was personally criticized for what was seen as exploitation of her fame,[43] but she explained that it was "strictly a business agreement" to earn the money needed to attend the World Theater Festival in Nancy, France.

[57] For the performance he was nominated for Best Actor at the 45th Academy Awards, which were presented on March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.

[59][60][4] Producer Howard W. Koch, she later said, told her "you can't read all that" in reference to the 739-word speech written by Brando,[61] so she condensed it all into 60 seconds.

And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry—excuse me... [booing and applause] and on television in movie re-runs, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee.

[68] Koch and director Marty Pasetta both later recalled that John Wayne was waiting in the wings and had to be restrained by six security guards to prevent him from forcing her off stage.

[74][75] At a later press conference, Littlefeather read to journalists the speech that Brando had prepared; The New York Times published the full text the next day.

Coretta Scott King commended Brando for his non-violent stand, stating, "It is gratifying to see people in entertainment increasingly concerned about injustices in society and not just interested in making money.

[93][94] Contemporary accounts of the founding of the Red Earth Performing Arts Company by Nez Perce actor and playwright John Kauffman, Jr in 1974 do not mention Littlefeather.

[97] She served as an advisor to PBS's Dance in America: Song for Dead Warriors (1984), which earned its choreographer, Michael Smuin, an Emmy Award.

[110][111][112] In 1988, she served as the secretary and community member-at-large on the interim board of directors of the American Indian AIDS Institute of San Francisco.

[32] Littlefeather participated in events related to a year-long celebration of the Americas before Columbus, but there is no record of a PBS show by either name being broadcast in 1992.

[123] In November 2019, she received the Brando Award, which recognizes individuals for their contributions to the American Indian, from the Red Nation International Film Festival.

[125] Author Tommy Orange was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Open Space platform to write a piece called "Dear Marlon Brando" as part of the magazine Alcatraz Is Not an Island, commemorating the 50th anniversary.

[9] Over the years, Littlefeather described her personal experiences with serious health issues, including internal bleeding, collapsed lungs, and cancer.

[59] After recovering, she received a degree from Antioch University in holistic health and nutrition with an emphasis in Native American medicine, a practice she credited with her recovery.

Keeler writes that the sisters state that their father, who was born in Oxnard, California, was of Mexican descent and had no tribal ties, nor was he related to the Yaqui tribes of Northern Mexico.

[4] According to Liza Black, an associate professor of history and Native American and Indigenous studies at Indiana University, and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, "Keeler proves Littlefeather was a troubled woman who made the stories of others her own".

[137] Roger Ebert had disputed Littlefeather's Native American ethnicity in 2004 in an obituary for Marlon Brando, stating that after her attendance at the Oscars she was "identified as Maria Cruz, an actress who was not an Indian".

Self-identification, or even DNA tests, for instance, obscure the fact that American Indians have not only a cultural relationship to a specific tribe and the United States but a legal one.

[...] Harm is caused when resources and even jobs go to fakes instead of the people they were intended for.There have been calls for revisions or removal of the exhibition featuring a tribute to Littlefeather at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and questions raised about "the organization's commitment to historical accuracy".

[139] Historians and activists say the allegations should "prompt the Academy to investigate and determine whether it should amend its presentation of Littlefeather in its gallery spaces or in podcast and video interviews posted on its official channel".

[141] On March 6, 2024, newly publicized research indicated that the late activist may have had Indigenous Mexican roots, citing church records showing her great-great-grandfather was listed as "Yaquis criollos de la tierra" in 1815.