As one of the most memorable figures in the history of the Oscars — Will Smith notwithstanding — Sacheen Littlefeather is virtually assured a spot in the In Memoriam segment when the show airs Sunday, March 12, on ABC.
But her family would rather the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just forgot about the late actress.
Publicly recognizing her will continue the “biggest blunder in the history of the Oscars,” Littlefeather’s sister Rosalind Cruz told The Post Monday.
“They will [include her] because they need to keep covering up for themselves,” Cruz, 65 said of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “They’re endorsing a Pretendian and keep pushing the lie and slander of our family and they don’t care.”
Littlefeather, who died of breast cancer at 75 in October, established herself in Oscars lore in 1973 when she declined Marlon Brando’s Best Actor Oscar on his behalf. The “Godfather” actor selected Littlefeather to do so in protest of Hollywood’s mistreatment of Native Americans in film.
“I’m Apache and I am president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee,” she introduced herself in the speech.
But just weeks after her death, Littlefeather’s sisters, Cruz and Trudy Orlandi, blasted the activist as an “ethnic fraud” who concocted her heritage to get ahead in Hollywood.
Cruz said she fully expects the award show to honor her late sister despite purported DNA evidence debunking Littlefeather’s “lie” to 85 million Oscars viewers by claiming to Apache.
“What’s the Academy going to go? Are they going to continue trying to save face and brush this all underneath the rug?” Cruz continued. “It wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
“I don’t think she should be mentioned at all – period. It’s fraudulent and has no bearing in truth,” she added of her famous sister, born Marie Louise Cruz. (Their parents were of Mexican and European heritage.) “The only thing she could be mentioned as is a woman who refused an Oscar for Marlon Brando who called herself Sacheen Littlefeather, but was not of Native American heritage.”
In late October, Cruz detailed her family’s history to The Post, saying she watched in disbelief in 1973, from their grandparents’ home in rural Salinas, California, as her older sister appeared at the Oscars.
“She lied,” Cruz told The Post then.
Cruz and Orlandi also want the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to remove its tribute to Sacheen from its Los Angeles museum, where Littlefeather’s Oscars speech is featured in an exhibit of the award ceremony’s most iconic moments.
“We request that the Academy immediately cease and desist from lionizing or perpetuating the myth of Sacheen Littlefeather,” reads a Feb. 22 letter from the sisters to the Academy, obtained by The Post. “Any tribute to her must be removed to protect our family and the public from the continued sham.”
Cruz is now searching for an attorney to explore potential legal action. Both she and Orlandi endure online harassment in the wake of Sacheen being exposed as having Mexican heritage, she said.
“Now all her slander is coming back to us,” Cruz said of Littlfeather. “I don’t really care what they say about me, but it does affect my sister [Orlandi, 72]. It’s a horror story to us, as a family.”
In June, months prior to Littlefeather’s death, the Academy formally apologized to the actress, releasing a statement of reconciliation for her being blacklisted following the Oscars stunt.
An “Academy Visual History With Sacheen Littlefeather,” an expansive interview with Academy Museum Director Jacqueline Stewart, contains a disclaimer.
“The content of oral history interviews is personal, experiential and interpretive and by its nature, relies on the memories, perceptions and opinions of individuals,” the disclaimer reads. “Interviews should not be understood as statements of fact.”
Littlefeather was also honored by the Academy in September, including with its “long-awaited statement of apology” and live Native American performances, video shows.
An Academy Museum spokesperson declined to comment.
In October, the spokesperson told The Post: “This is something both Littlefeather and the Native American community have addressed continuously since the 1970s. Native American and Indigenous identity is deeply complex and layered, especially in the United States, and these communities have long battled erasure and misrepresentation. With the support of its Indigenous Alliance — an Academy member affinity group — the Academy recognizes self-identification.”
The sisters’ Feb. 22 letter, which advised the Academy to take the “warning seriously,” did not prompt any response, Cruz said Monday.
“No, of course not,” Cruz said of whether she expected a reply. “These people have no moral compass. It’s an insult to Native Americans, and the Academy is endorsing somebody they know is a fraud.”
