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Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC (born Beverly Jean Santamaria; February 20, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist. Sainte-Marie's singing and writing repertoire includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism.
Aug 3, 2023 · Visit the official site of Buffy Sainte-Marie, the legendary singer-songwriter and activist. Find out about her latest news, projects, artwork, tour dates and live music photo gallery.
Oct 27, 2023 · The iconic singer-songwriter has long claimed to be a Cree woman born in Canada, but CBC found evidence that she was born in the U.S. and has European roots. The story explores the complex and controversial issue of Indigenous identity in Canada.
- 43 min
Nov 23, 2023 · Buffy Sainte-Marie is pushing back on a recent CBC News investigation that questions her Indigenous heritage, maintaining she has never lied about her identity. The iconic...
- 45 min
- Kelly Geraldine Malone
- Early Life, Family and Birth Claims
- Recording Career, 1964–76
- Recording Sabbatical
- Blacklisting
- Film and Television Career
- Educator and Philanthropist
- Recording Career, 1992–2014
- Recording Career, 2015–Present
- Contested Indigenous Ancestry
- Honours and Awards
Throughout her career, Buffy Sainte-Marie has claimed that she has never known the exact circumstances of her birth. She has said that, after possibly being orphaned or taken from her birth family, she was adopted when she was a few months old. She was then raised in Massachusetts by Albert St. Marie and his wife, Winifred, who Buffy has claimed wa...
Buffy Sainte-Marie signed with Vanguard Records, which released It’s My Way! in 1964. The album included “Universal Soldier.” Sainte-Marie has said the song is “about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all.” Though not a hit for Sainte-Marie, it was a year later for British singer Donovan. The song was popula...
Following the release of Sweet America in 1976, Sainte-Marie took a 16-year sabbatical from recording to raise her son, Dakota Starblanket Wolfchild. She limited her work to scoring films, performing occasional concerts (such as with the Regina Symphony Orchestra under John Kim Bell), composing, and painting in her home studio in Hawaii, where she ...
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s strong stance on Indigenous issues and against the Vietnam War made her unpopular with the Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon administrations in the United States. As a result, her music was blacklisted from radio stations and held back from reaching a wider audience. Sainte-Marie only discovered this upon seeing her FBI files...
Though mostly known for her music, Buffy Sainte-Marie became involved in education and film and television in the late 1960s. When she appeared in a 1968 episode of the NBC TV series The Virginian, she insisted that Indigenous actors be cast in all the Indigenous parts. In 1969, she founded her Nihewan Foundation partly to overcome the stereotyping...
Buffy Sainte-Marie has dedicated much of her life to education. After graduating with honours in Oriental philosophy and education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1970, she obtained an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the same school in 1983. She has taught music and digital art at the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College, Yor...
Buffy Sainte-Marie resumed her recording career in 1992 with the release of Coincidence and Likely Stories. It was the first album to be delivered digitally via the fledgling Internet. Recorded at her home in Hawaii, she sent it via dialup modem to the London studio of producer Chris Birkett (Sinéad O'Connor, Steve Earle, The Proclaimers), with who...
Buffy Sainte-Marie continued to record and tour well into her seventies. Her album Power in the Blood (2015), recorded on her Gypsy Boy label and distributed by True North Records, won the 2015 Polaris Music Prize as well as 2016 Juno Awards for Aboriginal Album and Contemporary Roots Album of the Year. Sainte-Marie was also featured on the single ...
An investigation conducted by CBC’s The Fifth Estate and broadcast on 27 October 2023 cast doubt on the veracity of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s claims to Indigenous ancestry. The Fifth Estatemanaged to locate Sainte-Marie’s birth certificate — which she has said for years did not exist — at the town hall in Stoneham, Massachusetts. It lists Beverly Jean S...
Juno Awards 1. Inductee, Canadian Music Hall of Fame(1995) 2. Best Music of Aboriginal Canada Recording (Up Where We Belong) (1997) 3. Aboriginal Recording of the Year (Running for the Drum) (2009) 4. Aboriginal Album of the Year (Power in the Blood) (2016) 5. Contemporary Roots Album of the Year (Power in the Blood) (2016) 6. Allan Waters Humanita...
May 6, 2024 · Buffy Sainte-Marie (born February 20, 1941/42, Piapot Reserve, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-born American singer-songwriter, guitarist, political activist, and visual artist known especially for her use of music to promote awareness of issues affecting Native Americans.
Feb 8, 2019 · Learn about the life and legacy of Buffy Sainte-Marie, a prolific and inspiring Canadian musician, activist and artist. From her early days as a self-taught folk singer to her groundbreaking work with Indigenous and Aboriginal causes, discover 75 amazing facts about her.
