Hollywood’s Top Native American Producer Is a Fake, Activists Claim
New York Post | March 26, 2023 | Joshua Rhett MillerOne of Hollywood’s leading Native American figures is being accused of faking her claims of Cherokee heritage, The Post can reveal.
Award-winning Heather Rae, 56, serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance, previously headed up the Sundance Institute’s Native American program and claims “my mother was Indian and my father was a cowboy.” Multiple prior news reports have also cited her as having a Cherokee mother.
But a watchdog group called the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds is now demanding the Academy and the producer drop her “false claims” while activists insist she’s at best 1/2048th Cherokee. The group accuses her of profiting from usurping “real American Indian voices and perspectives” and being a fraudulent so-called “Pretendian.”
They took the whole Cherokee nation
Put them on some reservation
I took from them a way of life
And sold their lore of pain and strife
Failed to know their native tongue
But made up an image to dazzle the young
And all the scripts I made by hand
While nowhere close to native land
Cherokee people
Cherokee tribe
So much to give
Not proud to lie
They took the whole Indian nation
Locked them on this reservation
Though I wear a skirt to hide
I claim I’m redwoman deep inside
Cherokee people
Cherokee tribe
So much to give
I had to lie
But maybe someday when they learn
Cherokee nation will get a turn,
to watch my effigy burn…
More authentic than Lizzy Warren.
“It Is Time For You To Stop (All of Your Sobbin’)
— Chrissie Hynde and the Pretendians
well in hynde sight…yes
You can always spot the pretendians because when they greet you ,they repeat their greeting 2 or 3 times as a rythmic chant..” Hi how are ya, Hi how are ya…”