Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera or "Oscar" DeCorti, the son of two first-generation immigrants from Italy. In 1924 he moved to California, changed his name from "DeCorti" to "Corti" to Cody, and started working as an actor, presenting himself as a Native American. In 1936, he married Bertha Parker, a Native American archaeologist of Abenaki and Seneca descent. Together, they adopted two sons - Robert and Arthur, two brothers of Dakota and Maricopa descent. Iron Eyes Cody claimed Native American descent, although he was actually of Italian descent, with ancestors from Sicily. He labored for decades to promote Native American causes, and was honored by Hollywood's Native American community in 1995 as a "non-Native" for his contribution to film.