Star Trek: Voyager's Native American Consultant Jamake Highwater Was Really Jewish

Voyager's Chakotay, First American Indian Main Cast Member on Star Trek, Had A Fraud For A Cultural Consultant

Star Trek can claim many historic firsts in the entertainment world, even global pop culture. The Gene Roddenberry created Wagon Train To The Stars isn’t just a TV, film and multi-faceted entertainment franchise, but has become a pop cultural and even a worldwide, social touchstone.

It is said, even in the most remote parts of our planet Earth, people know and utter the fabled phrase, Beam me up, Scotty. Talk about narrative power and singular, global reach. Indeed, as Vulcan Spock says, Live Long & Prosper.

Famously, William Shatner as Captain Kirk engaged in the first interracial kiss back on the original series. Nichelle Nichols playing Lt. Uhura was swept up in Kirk’s arm. The kiss he gave her became historic. In today’s world, it’s hard to imagine something that presently we take so for granted being so potentially taboo.

In 1995, Star Trek: Voyager pioneered the first woman - Captain Janeway - to command a Starfleet Starship. Played by actress Kate Mulgrew, we saw Janeway confidently guide her crew home from the Delta Quadrant after seven adventurous seasons.

We may often forget, but along with a female commander, there was an additional important first among this Starship crew.

On the same UPN broadcast show, another pioneering television landmark saw the first Native American main cast member. Chakotay, played by Robert Beltran (Mexican), ably assisted Janeway as first officer. To ensure there was an authentic take on Native American culture and history, studio Paramount Pictures hired American Indian consultant, Jamake Highwater, as the sci-fi program’s Native American advisor.

Sadly, Jamake Highwater (real name Jackie Marks) was a complete fraud. He claimed Native American blood and ancestry, but he wasn't Native, but actually Jewish.

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