You may be forgiven if you did not know that Melrose Place temptress Heather Locklear, blonde and blue-eyed, is an American Indian. Yet she definitely fits Hollywood's criteria of preferred actresses, which may be why the First Americans in the Arts -- the wannabe Oscars for American Indians -- awarded her Best American Indian Actress on TV this year. PNS associate editor Jacqueline Keeler, a member of the Dineh Nation and the Yankton Dakota Sioux, is a Bay Area writer.

LOS ANGELES -- Before the Hollywood Oscar hoopla began, another group of motion picture professionals awarded their best and brightest. The First Americans in the Arts held their annual awards on February 13 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Who are the First Americans you might ask? Well, Heather Locklear is one of them. The Melrose Place temptress, overlooked by the Academy, did receive an award this year for Best American Indian Actress in a Television Show.

You didn't know that Heather Locklear was an American Indian or even, a First American? It seems a lot of the leading American Indian actresses are blonde and blue-eyed nowadays. As is most everyone in Hollywood for that matter.

Now, it's true there is no scientific basis for race, but a certain preference for genetic phenotypes (blonde hair, blue eyes) found only in those with European ancestry, is evident to anyone owning a television set or cracking open a magazine. And the American Indian population, both those certified as such by the United States government and those who simply just know they are, (whether through family histories or through past life experiences) vary widely in coloring thanks to immigration of people from every continent in the world.

There are, however, still common characteristics that most American Indians share (black hair, brown skin, dark brown eyes) that are not the preferred ones of most Hollywood casting directors. In fact, non race-specific open call auditions are known in the business to mean anything but that particular combination.

So, is it a great benefit to the American Indian people when our more fair-skinned and blonde members strike it big in Hollywood? Especially those that hardly say a peep about it and take parts that spell "business as usual"? Does Heather Locklear (Locklear, by the way, is a common last name in the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, half the tribe is named Locklear) do anything in her TV career that benefits American Indians, women, people of color -- anyone but men?

Locklear, much to her credit, did not come in person to accept the award. One blonde American Indian actress did and proclaimed on the stage, "I'm one of the rich Cherokees," followed with, "under this blonde hair is a thick head of black hair." Wayne Newton, another recipient, did not show either, but sent a video. In the middle of his thank you speech he felt oddly compelled to tell us his daughter's Indian name. It was a pretty typical response by the chosen "American Indian awardees."

For a long time, the committee of First Americans in the Arts tried to maintain a level of authenticity by only allowing American Indian actors with federally-issued Certificates of Indian Blood (CIB's), but apparently this has gone by the wayside. It was certainly made difficult by the fact that there are 130+ tribes the U.S. government simply flat-out refuses to recognize along with the influx of American Indian actors from Central and South America. The committee has been accused of preferential treatment for those mixed with Northern European ancestry (French/English) over those with Southern European (Spanish/Portuguese). Actors with African and Asian ancestry have been told to go to those ethnic groups for recognition and work.

It's sort of ironic that by ignoring some "racial" boundaries (a blonde Indian versus a brunette) the First Americans in the Arts have called into question what exactly is the reason for their existence. Obviously, American Indians who look like Heather Locklear are not going to face the same difficulties in color-conscience Hollywood as some. Is Heather Locklear just passing or is she just well, white?

In the First Americans' search for star wattage what's next -- President Clinton? The leader of the free world proudly announced on the Jim Lehrer NewsHour's Panel on Race that he had a Cherokee grandmother. "First American Indian President in Best Performance before the Senate Select Committee on Impeachement. . . ."

In truth, recognizing these relationships is more in line with American Indian traditions than U.S. government racial blood quantums. My own ancestors tied their identity not to "race" but to kinship ties and clans. And the Locklears of the Lumbee Nation can point to Heather as their own, but do her accomplishments further the careers of other American Indians? And is she really, after all is said and done, the best American Indian actress we've got on TV?