While living in San Francisco, Highwater started a small dance company, the San Francisco Contemporary Dancers. He was the principal director and choreographer from 1954 to 1967. In the late 1960s, he moved to New York City around 1969. He also started publishing professionally as J. Marks. In New York, he started using the name Jamake Highwater and claiming to be Cherokee and Native American. At various times he said his father was Eastern Cherokee and his mother, whom he called Marcia Highwater, was Blackfoot/French. Native American intellectual Gerald Vizenor (Anishinaabe) described individuals such as Highwater, who took on identities as Native American, as "varionatives" in his 2000 book "Fugitive Poses."