Hollywood producer accused of faking Cherokee ancestry

Questions about the Native American ancestry of film producer Heather Rae, known for being an activist for Native and Indigenous creators and projects in Hollywood, are being raised after a group published public family records that do not show evidence of Native ancestry.

The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, an organization that examines claims of Native ancestry from individuals and businesses who publicly represent Native identity, told the New York Post that public family records do not show any ties to tribal heritage for Rae. Citing research published in a blogpost, the group said her family identified as white across multiple public records.

Rae, who was born in California and raised in Boise, Idaho, has said that her mother is Cherokee and has identified as Native American throughout her career. She has not publicly commented on the accusations.

Rae has produced multiple films that center around Native characters and stories, including Frozen River in 2008, which won awards from the Sundance Institute and was nominated for two Oscars. She serves on the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous alliance and previously directed Sundance’s Native program. Her husband, Russell Friedenberg, is also a film producer and her daughter, Johnny Sequoyah, is an actor.

Recently, Rae co-produced Fancy Dance, a film that premiered at the Sundance film festival this year and received financial support from the Cherokee Nation.

In a statement, the Cherokee Nation said that Rae “is not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation”.

“She has no affiliation with Cherokee Nation Film Office and was not included in any funding it provided to Fancy Dance,” Brandon Scott, vice-president of enterprise communication for Cherokee Nation businesses, told Native news outlet indianz.com.

Rae has said previously that she is not an enrolled member of a tribal system. She told BuzzFeed News in 2017, when questions arose around the Native heritage of Yellowstone actor Kelsey Asbille, who identified as part Cherokee: “I know the tribe has an official position on tribal identified, but there are many Native people who understand the diaspora that separated families from tribal systems.”

An anonymous source close to IllumiNative, a non-profit that advocates for Native American storytelling and where Rae serves as adviser, told the New York Post that blood quantum – or the measuring of Native ancestry in a person’s genetic background – and citizen requirements “continues to be a sensitive and nuanced issue that has a dark and complicated history”.

“Those within the Native community deserve the space and the agency to have these conversations,” the source said.

Kim TallBear, who is Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and a professor of Native studies at the University of Alberta, said on Twitter that the New York Post story about Rae shows that “the fractions and DNA test discussions are not sufficiently nuanced”.

“But the reveal of a Native ID fraud support system should be a wake-up call,” she wrote.

Many Native Americans in Hollywood have spoken out about the industry’s issues regarding Native representation on and off screen. Multiple studies of popular TV shows and films have shown that Native representation typically stands at below 1% of characters, and low representation among other roles like writers and directors.