Who is Heather Rae? Ethnicity explored as Oscar-nominated producer is accused of faking Native American Cherokee ancestry

Academy Award-nominated producer Heather Rae has been accused of faking her Cherokee heritage claims by a tribal watchdog organization.

On March 26, The New York Post published a report that revealed that the leading watchdog group, Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, has called out the 56-year-old personality for her "false claims" over her ethnicity, with activists claiming she is 1/2048th Cherokee at the most.

Rae is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Indigenous Alliance and previously oversaw the Sundance Institute's Native American program. She has previously claimed that her mother "was Indian and my father was a cowboy." Several previous press stories have also mentioned Rae having a Cherokee mother.

The watchdog group called out Heather Rae for fraudulently taking over “real American Indian voices and perspectives” and called her a "Pretendian."

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Heather Rae and her family

Born on October 1, 1966, Heather Rae is a native of Los Angeles, California. As per her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from Evergreen State College with a Bachelor's degree in Cinema and Multicultural Studies.

She has been a producer in Hollywood for 31 years and currently serves as the Narrative Change Strategist at the IllumiNative Org.

Heather Rae is best known for producing the Oscar-nominated film Frozen River, the Netflix Originals Tallulah, Dude, and I Believe in Unicorns, the Golden Globe-winning The Dry Land, and Bull.

With Amazon Studios, Rae currently has a First Look contract and serves as executive producer on the Josh Brolin-starring series Outer Range. Variety called her a top visionary in 2009, citing her half-Cherokee ancestry.

In a press conference in New Zealand in 2016, Rae stated that she has a Selu tattoo and said:

“I grew up in the state of Idaho, which is in Pacific Northwest, in the U.S. And, um, my mom was Indian and my dad’s a cowboy. I am not conflicted – I mean, there are times. It was interesting at home.”

In 2016, she became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she now serves as a prominent figure in the organization's Indigenous Alliance.

Rae has frequently referenced her "Indian" heritage, despite the fact that she is not a recognized tribe member. A report by the watchdog group shows that she is not half-Indian and doesn't have any relatives that the three Cherokee nations accept as being native. It also includes Vernon and Barbara Bybee's divorce documents from 1969, which say that both of them are white.

On her paternal side, one of her ancestors belonged to England and resided in Virginia before the Pilgrims arrived. No evidence has been found from her mother's side as well. Government records show that all ancestors from her maternal grandfather's side identified themselves as white.

Only one of them, Jane E. Lassiter, Rae's fourth great-grandmother, may have a Cherokee connection. It was pointed out that Archibald Lassiter, Jane's father, was one-eighth Cherokee, making Rae 1/2048th Indian.

Heather Rae's Wikipedia page also no longer refers to her as being part Cherokee or Native Indian.