Talk:Sacheen Littlefeather

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Despite the claim here that she is part Mexican, she is, in fact, Native American: part Apache, part Yaqui, part Pueblo and part Caucasian. "Littlefeather" is a name she used professionally, and still uses today. - anon. editor #68.125.225.202, Sep. 15, 2005

Well, that would certainly be a surprise to the Apache and Yaqui peoples, neither of which show her father's name on their rolls. There is no evidence whatsoever that she is Native American except for her own claim to be so. Manuel Cruz appears on no tribal roll for either group, which means he wasn't part of the tribe. Incidentally, 'Apache and Yaqui' is a pretty common claim for those with hispanic heritage who concoct tales of fake Native American heritage. Apr. 14, 2022 Austinlewis87 (talk) 15:47, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

The Mexican footnote should be deleted from above. Saying that she is Mexican is like stating one is from the United States or Canada. Like smaller numbers of persons from the U.S. and Canada, many Mexicans are of Native American descent. These borders did not exist to the native peoples and aren't particularly relevant in that context. - anon. editor #132.216.227.219, Sep. 24, 2005

Expanded with birth place and filmography.--Dakota ~ ε ° 22:04, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Isn't someone who is Mexican and whose descent is "part Caucasian" not generally considered to be a "Native American," but rather a Mestizo? john k 20:50, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorry to burst the taboo bubble but "Native Americans" are technically "mestizo" (mixed) too (Chaske Spencer, Tyler Christopher (actor), Kiowa Gordon among others). Reservations accept anyone as long as you got indian blood and identify with it. For example one can only have 25% indian blood and classify as Native American. And FYI "White Americans" are not purely 100% white yet they still identify as white (especially when they look it) and see themselves as such (this includes African-Americans as well) so..... Please stop the double standard ignoramuses.--76.213.233.236 (talk) 23:19, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

That's not true at all.

Tribal membership, since the rolls were taken, requires that you prove relation to the tribe.

Incidentally, 'Sacheen' 'Littlefeather' shows up on no tribal rolls whatsoever (under her 'screen name' or her actual name), and there's not one iota of evidence that she ever tried to join a tribe. More interesting is the fact that neither her father, nor her grandfather, ever applied for tribal membership, nor show up on any tribal roll, much less the two she claimed her dad was a member of.

Which is a pretty clear indicator that she's not actually Native American and, is indeed, a phony, and is a mixture of her dad's Mexican/Spanish heritage and her mother's German/other 'white' heritages. Austinlewis87 (talk) 13:57, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

Fall Out

Wasn't she blackballed from Hollywood? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.59.196.194 (talk) 18:54, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

Reliable Sources

I am not saying I know that there are untruths, but a claim like saying John Wayne had to be physically restrained should probably either be sourced somewhere other than an interview with Littlefeather, or it should be noted that she claims it is true. That should have an independent source if it's going to be stated as a fact. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.127.146.222 (talk) 03:10, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

Reasonable request. 24.42.183.131 (talk) 01:18, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

There's really no other source that doesn't come directly from her.

Much like her claim that her father was Yaqui or Apache, despite Manuel Cruz appearing in neither tribe's rolls.

The reality is that much of what she claimed about her life, the only 'evidence' is her claims and nothing else. For example, there is no evidence that John Wayne (or Clint Eastwood) ever tried to assault her, except for her own words. Every single place where someone told the story, they could find no other account but hers. Her claim that she's Native American? No evidence other than her own words.

For the claim that John Wayne had to be stopped from assaulting her, there is no evidence whatsoever. There wasn't even an article about it in 1973 (the year that the alleged even took place), nor until DECADES later.

Pretty much every claim she's made about herself, from her Native American heritage to her near-encounter with John Wayne, should be taken with a grain of salt. Austinlewis87 (talk) 17:35, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia reports what reliable sources say. So far, multiple reliable sources report the incident with John Wayne having to be restrained and kept from harming her as fact. I see no reason to doubt the reliability of these sources, given that no sources which call this event into question has been produced. Lots of secondary sources make determinations about the facts they report by pointing to only one source of info for that fact. This doesn't mean the source is the only one, it's just the only source provided. --Pinchme123 (talk) 17:57, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

'Reliable sources' all coming from her allegation made decades later. No corresponding police report, no corroborating claims, just the word of a woman who has been pretending to be Native American since the 70s. Austinlewis87 (talk) 13:59, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

Sacheen = ?

Is there a meaning of her self-chosen first name Sacheen? Does anybody else carry this name?

At least for an answer to the first question she could be a fine source ; ) Helium4 (talk) 14:35, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

There is no real meaning to it, as it's a bastardized pronunciation of a name or word in multiple languages, going as far back as Sanskrit.

She claims she adopted the name when one her friends in the American Indian Movement started calling her that during their occupation of Alcatraz. Like many of her claims, there's no evidence for that, nor that someone ever named her that, except for her own word, which is odd given other statements she made about how she came up with her 'stage name.'

One thing that is clear is that she is not Native American, which makes the whole 'Littlefeather' thing, and the ridiculous getup she wore as if she was participating in a tribal event on a reservation, pretty insulting. Sacheen has no meaning in either language of the tribes she claims her father descended from. Of course, that's not a surprise, since her father, and his father, do not show up on any tribal roll.

In other words, it's a bullshit name, like Littlefeather, she adopted to craft her phony 'injun girl' persona that she seemed to create while in college in California. Austinlewis87 (talk) 14:06, 17 August 2022 (UTC)