Native American Hollywood producer accused of faking heritage

Oscar-nominated Native American Hollywood producer who claims ‘my mom was Indian and my dad’s a cowboy’ is faking her Cherokee heritage, according to activists

• Heather Rae serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance, and once headed the Sundance Institute’s Native American program. 
• Rae, 56,  was named a top visionary by Variety back in 2009 and enjoying top spots in two of the world’s biggest film organizations’ Native American factions
• Tribal Alliance Against Frauds says Rae is the latest figure to be ousted as a ‘Pretendian’ – a term for a person who falsely claims to have Indigenous ancestry

A prominent producer and Native American activist has been accused of faking her Cherokee heritage – with a leading tribal watchdog group now saying she usurped ‘real American Indian voices and perspectives’ for her own gain.

The producer of several films featuring stars like Ellen Page, 56-year-old Heather Rae currently serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance, and once headed the Sundance Institute’s Native American program.

Born in California but raised in Idaho, Rae is perhaps best known for ‘Frozen River,’ a Sundance Award-winning film that was nominated for an Oscar, and 2005’s Trudell, an acclaimed documentary that follows notable Native American John Trudell.

Over the course of her career, Rae has been hailed for her self-professed Cherokee roots – named a top visionary by Variety back in 2009 and enjoying top spots in two of the world’s most prominent film organizations’ Native American factions.

More recently, she was tapped to broker an apology from the Academy to the estate of Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American activist who famously rejected Marlon Brando’s 1973 Best Actor Oscar in a bid to call attention to her and others’ plight.

However, her two surviving sisters unmasked her as an ethnic fraud following her death in October, revealing she had actually actually Hispanic.

Heather Rae, a filmmaker who currently serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance and once headed the Sundance Institute’s Native American program, has been accused of faking her Native American heritage

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker (top left) recently brokered an apology from the academy to Sacheen Littlefeather (seen seated), the Native American activist who famously rejected Marlon Brando’s 1973 Oscar in a bid to call attention to her and others’ plight. The pair are seen with Bird Runningwater, co-chair of the Academy’s Indigenous Alliance, last September

Littlefeather sent shockwaves in the 70s when she delivered a speech about the way ‘her people’ were treated in Hollywood in lieu of Brando accepting the award. She was unmasked as a sham after her death in October at age 75

Now, according to claims from the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds [TAAF],  it appears that Rae is the latest figure to be ousted as a ‘Pretendian’ – a term for a person who falsely claims to have Indigenous ancestry – with the group providing census records and birth certificates that go back hundreds of years to support their claims.

A report outlining that research charges: ‘Heather Rae has built a long and impressive resume as a Cherokee producer, positioning herself as perhaps the central figure in Native American media production, sitting on boards and acting as a gatekeeper for Native artists. 

‘Yet even a cursory look into her family tree points to this career being built on a lie: Heather Rae is a white woman who is wholly lacking even the most minute bit of Native American ancestry, Cherokee or otherwise. Put simply, she has none. Zero.’

The report proceeds to provide a 1969 divorce certificate from both of Rae’s parents, Vernon and Barbara Bybee, in which they are listed as white. 

When venturing further down the figurative rabbit hole detailing Rae’s bloodline, TAAF officials said that it becomes  increasingly clear that neither parent sported any sort of ties to the tribe that their daughter now claims.

Census records going back as far as the 1700s show that on her father’s side, one ancestor arrived from England in Virginia before the Pilgrims. 

As for her mother – whom, according to Rae, was the source of her Cherokee heritage – documents show little to no evidence of any Cherokee connection whatsoever.

The report adds of her distinctly ‘Anglo-American’ roots: ‘Her father’s side was primarily Mormons who have lived in Utah and Idaho since the mid-19th century. \

Records further show how Rae’s ancestors lived in lands which were historically part of the Cherokee Nation, such as Kentucky and Tennessee, but were occupying the territory as white, European settlers.

‘Rae’s great-great-great grandparents, Byrum Lee Bybee (1799-1864) and Elizabeth Lane (1802-1867) were the first to make the move West as Mormon overland pioneers from Kentucky. 

The report proceeds to provide a 1969 divorce certificate from both of Rae’s parents, Vernon and Barbara Bybee, in which they are listed as white.

Census records going back as far as 1950 show Rae’s white ancestry. This 1950 U.S. Census show how all her family members at the time identified as white

Records show how Rae’s ancestors lived in lands which were historically part of the Cherokee Nation, such as Kentucky and Tennessee, but were occupying the territory as white settlers

Seen here are more documents that supposedly disprove Rae’s claims concerning her heritage

‘Her paternal grandmother, Ethel Harper Bybee, is the great-granddaughter of English immigrant and Mormon Pioneer Thomas Harper, who was a proponent of polygamy.’

The document further details how Rae’s earliest known patriarch hailed from England, and married a 16-year-old bride in Salt Lake City in 1883 while married to Rae’s great-great-great grandmother, whose ancestors ‘are almost entirely from the British Isles, and most were English.’

‘She is truly an Anglo-American.’

Her father’s side – which Rae never claimed was responsible for her ‘half Cherokee’ heritage – were largely white Mormons, according to the report, which was published online on March 11.

It also includes more than a dozen of documents dating back to the 1700s that all indicate that every person in Rae’s family identified themselves as white. 

Documents cited by the agency – which is tasked with keeping tabs on the increasingly common ‘Pretendian’ practice – included divorce records, birth and death certificates, military registration cards, and even genealogical reports that show no semblance of any Native American DNA.

The TAAF’s director Lianna Costantino has since confirmed the report’s legitimacy, and that her agency was responsible for the research.

In a statement Sunday, the rep decried Rae for her alleged behavior, charging that her and others’ actions harm the already disenfranchise Native American community.

‘Being an American Indian person is not just about who you claim to be, it is about who claims you,’ she said, before adding, ‘It’s much more than just race. We are citizens of sovereign nations. Being an Indian is a legal, political distinction.’

Authors of the report did concede that there is a slight possibility that Rae’s claim of Cherokee descent lies with her great-great-great-great grandmother on her mother’s side, Jane E Lassiter (seen here), but said that records indicate that Lassiter was 100 percent white

Rae – whose real last name is Bybee as well – had previously claimed she was half-Cherokee, saying that ‘my mother was Indian and my father was a cowboy.’

Several news outlets have repeated this claim, citing the producer as having a Cherokee mother.

That said, authors of the report did concede that there is a slight possibility that Rae’s claim of Cherokee descent lies with her great-great-great-great grandmother on her mother’s side, Jane E Lassiter.

Lassiter was born in South Carolina 1807 and died in Oklahoma in 1889. At the time, the area was considered Indian territory. 

Her father, Archibald Lassiter, born in North Carolina in 1775, was a white settler awarded Cherokee lands in Georgia as part of a 1832 lottery after ‘the removal of Cherokees from their homelands,’ the report states.

This lottery, the TAAF writes, was ‘only open to non-Cherokees.’

The group adds that winning such a lottery, is anything, serves as ‘definitive proof of the ancestor NOT being Cherokee’ and shows Rae’s family stories ‘to have no basis in fact.’

The group adds that ‘even if Archibald was 1/8th Cherokee as claimed by his descendants,’ it would make Rae only 1/2048th Cherokee. 

‘She has more Pennsylvania Dutch (early German immigrant) ancestry than that – which is not a lot either compared to her British ancestry,’ the report snipes.

DailyMail.com reached out Rae’s attorney Sunday for comment on the TAAF’s claims and supporting research, but did not immediately receive a response.

As previously mentioned, she was brought on by the Academy last year to broker an agreement between the motion picture giant and Littlefeather, who was blacklisted in Hollywood for appearing on Brando’s behalf to decline his award while claiming she was Apache. 

Rae has three children – the oldest of which is 20-year-old Dexter star Johnny Sequoyah. The pair are seen here with Crystal EchoHawk, founder of IllumiNative – another Narrative American group where Rae works – at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival premiere Rae’s ‘Fancy Dance’, which was partly funded by the Cherokee Nation

The model’s actions served to highlight Native-American activism that had been swirling at the time, with her defiant action since staying at the forefront of the collective American consciousness for decades after.

However, in October, after similar hoaxes had already come to light, it was revealed that Littlefeather too was a pretender.

‘It’s a lie,’ her sister Trudy Orlandi told the San Francisco Chronicle late last year after her death at age 75.

‘My father was who he was. His family came from Mexico. And my dad was born in Oxnard.’

Sister Rosalind Cruz concurred, ‘It is a fraud. It’s disgusting to the heritage of the tribal people. And it’s just… insulting to my parents.’

As for Rae – who has a tattoo of a Cherokee corn goddess and joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2016 – it remains to be seen how her status as a leading figure in the Native American activism scene will be affected by TAAF’s revelations.

Apart from 2016’s Tallulah staring transgender actor Page, Rae has produced a variety of processive works – including a recent project, Fancy Dance, that was partly funded by the Cherokee Nation.

The film is about a Native American woman who kidnaps her niece from the girl’s white grandparents, and premiered earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival. 

Such works show that Rae had continued to lean heavily her ‘Indian’ ancestry over the course of her multi-decade producing and directing career, despite not officially being an enrolled member of any tribal nation. 

In addition to the high-profile position she enjoys on the Indigenous Alliance – one of the most important organizations in the world when it comes to Native American outreach efforts – she also works as a ‘narrative change strategist’ for IllumiNative, an ‘unapologetically ambitious and innovative Native women-led’ racial and social justice organization.

The group’s mission statement, according to its website, to amplify ‘contemporary Native voices’ while challenging the ‘invisibility’ of Native Americans. 

She is is married to fellow Hollywood producer Russell Friedenberg, whom with she shares three children – the oldest of which is 20-year-old actress Johnny Sequoyah, who is currently starring in the ongoing reboot of Showtime drama Dexter. 

In 2009, Variety named her as a top visionary while noting her half-Cherokee roots. 

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