Buffy Sainte-Marie | |
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.JPG) Sainte-Marie in 2015 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Beverley Jean Santamaria (1941-02-20)February 20, 1941 (age 84) Stoneham, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1963–2023 (touring) |
| Labels | |
Spouses | |
| Website | buffysainte-marie |
Buffy Sainte-Marie (bornBeverley Jean Santamaria;[1] February 20, 1941[2]) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist.[3]
Sainte-Marie's singing and writing repertoire includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism, and her work has often focused on issues facing Indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada. She has won recognition, awards, and honors for her music as well as her work in education and social activism. In 1983, her co-written song "Up Where We Belong", for the filmAn Officer and a Gentleman, won theAcademy Award for Best Original Song at the55th Academy Awards.[4][5] The song also won theGolden Globe Award for Best Original Song that same year.[6]
Since the early 1960s, Sainte-Marie claimedIndigenous Canadian ancestry, but a 2023 investigation byCBC News concluded she was born in the United States and is of Italian and English descent.[1] Some Indigenous musicians and organizations called for awards she won whilefalsely claiming an Indigenous identity to be rescinded.[7][8][9][10][11] In 2025, many of her awards and honors were revoked, including her membership in theOrder of Canada, her induction into theCanadian Music Hall of Fame, herJuno Awards, and herPolaris Music Prizes.[12][13]
Sainte-Marie was born at theNew England Sanitarium and Hospital inStoneham, Massachusetts, to parents Albert Santamaria and Winifred Irene Santamaria,née Kenrick.[1] The Santamarias were an American couple fromWakefield, Massachusetts. Her father's parents were born inItaly while her mother was ofEnglish ancestry.[1] Her family changed their surname from Santamaria to the more French-sounding "Sainte-Marie" due toanti-Italian sentiment following theSecond World War.[1]
Sainte-Marie taught herself to play piano and guitar in her childhood and teen years.[14] Sainte-Marie attendedWakefield High School. Then she attended theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst,[1] earning degrees inteaching andAsian philosophy,[14][better source needed] where she says she graduated as one of the top ten students of her class.[15][16]
During the early 60s as she attended theUniversity of Massachusetts some of her songs, "Ananias", the Indian lament "Now That the Buffalo's Gone", and "Mayoo Sto Hoon" (aHindiBollywood song "Mayus To Hoon Waade Se Tere" originally sung by the Indian singerMohammed Rafi from the 1960 movieBarsaat Ki Raat) were already in her repertoire.[14] In her early twenties she toured alone, developing her craft and performing in various concert halls, folk music festivals, andFirst Nations communities across the United States, Canada, and abroad. She spent a considerable amount of time in the coffeehouses of downtown Toronto's oldYorkville district, and New York City'sGreenwich Village as part of the early to mid-1960s folk scene, often alongside other emerging artists such asLeonard Cohen,Neil Young, andJoni Mitchell, the latter of whom she introduced toElliot Roberts, who became her manager.[17]
In 1963, while she was suffering from a throat infection, Sainte-Marie became addicted tocodeine. Recovering from that experience became the basis for her song "Cod'ine",[16] which was later recorded byDonovan,Janis Joplin,the Charlatans,Quicksilver Messenger Service,Man,the Litter,the Leaves,Jimmy Gilmer,the Fireballs,Gram Parsons,[18] Charles Brutus McClay,[19]the Barracudas (spelled "Codeine"),[20]the Golden Horde,[21]Nicole Atkins andCourtney Love.
Also in 1963, Sainte-Marie witnessed wounded soldiers returning from theVietnam War at a time when the U.S. government was denying involvement.[22] This inspired the composition of her widely acclaimed anti-war protest song "Universal Soldier",[23] which was released on her debut albumIt's My Way! onVanguard Records in 1964, and later became a hit for both Donovan andGlen Campbell.[24]
Her 1965 albumMany a Mile included her most successful song "Until It's Time for You to Go", which has been recorded by many artists, includingNeil Diamond,Roberta Flack,Elvis Presley,Bobby Darin,Nancy Sinatra,Glen Campbell,Barbra Streisand,Peggy Lee,Johnny Mathis,Robert Goulet,Andy Williams and many others.[25]
In a 1965Billboard issue, folk-musicdisc jockeys voted Sainte-Marie "Favorite New Female Vocalist" in that genre.[26][nb 1] Some of her songs addressing the mistreatment of Native Americans, such as "Now That the Buffalo's Gone" (1964) and "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying" (1964, included on her 1966 album), created controversy at the time.[30]
In 1967, she releasedFire & Fleet & Candlelight, which contained her interpretation of the traditionalYorkshire dialect song "Lyke Wake Dirge", as well as a French language version of "Until It's Time For You to Go".
In 1968 she released her song "Take My Hand for a While" which was also later recorded by Glen Campbell and at least 13 other artists.[31]
Sainte-Marie's other well-known songs include "Mister Can't You See" (aTop 40 U.S. hit in 1972); "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo"; and the theme song of the movieSoldier Blue. She appeared onPete Seeger'sRainbow Quest with Pete Seeger in 1965 and several Canadian television productions from the 1960s to the 1990s,[17] and other TV shows such asAmerican Bandstand,Soul Train,The Johnny Cash Show, andThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Sainte-Marie sang the opening song, "The Circle Game" (written byJoni Mitchell),[17] in Stuart Hagmann's filmThe Strawberry Statement (1970);[32] and in the TV showThen Came Bronson episode "Mating Dance for Tender Grass" (1970), she sang and portrayed Tender Grass, the episode's titular character.[33] In 1970 she recorded the albumIlluminations,[34] an earlyquadraphonic vocal album on which she used aBuchla synthesizer.[35]
Sainte-Marie appeared in "The Heritage" episode ofThe Virginian which first aired on October 30, 1968, in which she played a Shoshone woman who had been sent to be educated at school.[36]
Sainte-Marie was hired in 1975 to present Native American programming for children for the first time onSesame Street.[37] Sainte-Marie wanted to teach the show's young viewers that "Indians still exist".[38] She regularly appeared onSesame Street over a five-year period from1976 to 1981. Sainte-Marie breastfed her first son, Dakota "Cody" Starblanket Wolfchild, during a 1977 episode. Sainte-Marie has suggested that this is the first representation of breastfeeding ever aired on television.[39][40]Sesame Street filmed several shows from her home in Hawaii in 1978.[41]
In 1979,Spirit of the Wind, featuring Sainte-Marie's original musical score, including the song "Spirit of the Wind", was shown at theCannes Film Festival.[42] The film is adocudrama aboutGeorge Attla, a "World Champion dog sledder". The American Indian Film Festival, which exhibited the film in 1980, recognizes accurate historical and contemporary portrayals of Native Americans.[42]
Sainte-Marie began usingApple II andMacintosh computers as early as 1981 to record her music and later some of her visual art.[14][43] The song "Up Where We Belong" (which Sainte-Marie co-wrote with lyricistWill Jennings and musicianJack Nitzsche) was performed byJoe Cocker andJennifer Warnes for the filmAn Officer and a Gentleman. It received theAcademy Award for Best Original Song in 1982.[5] On January 29, 1983, Jennings, Nitzsche, and Sainte-Marie won theGolden Globe Award for Best Original Song.[6] They also won theBAFTA film award for Best Original Song in 1984.[44] On theSongs of the Century list compiled by theRecording Industry Association of America in 2001, the song was listed at number 323.[45] In 2020, it was included onBillboard magazine's list of the "25 Greatest Love Song Duets".[46] In the early 1980s, one of her songs was used as the theme song for theCBC's Native seriesSpirit Bay.[47] She was cast for theTNT 1993 telefilmThe Broken Chain.[48] In 1989, she wrote and performed the music forWhere the Spirit Lives, a film about Native children being abducted, forced into residential schools, and expected to give up their Native way of life.[49]
In 1986, Britishpop bandRed Box covered her song "Qu'Appele Valley, Saskatchewan" (shortened to just "Saskatchewan") on their debut albumThe Circle & the Square.[50] The song appears on Sainte-Marie's 1976 albumSweet America.[51] Sainte-Marie voiced a Cheyenne character, Kate Bighead, in the 1991 made-for-TV movieSon of the Morning Star, telling the Indian side of theBattle of the Little Bighorn where theSioux chief,Sitting Bull, defeated Lieutenant ColonelGeorge Custer. In 1992, after a sixteen-year recording hiatus, Sainte-Marie released the albumCoincidence and Likely Stories.[52] Recorded in 1990 at home in Hawaii on her computer and transmitted via modem through the Internet to producer Chris Birkett in London, England,[17] the album included the politically charged songs "The Big Ones Get Away" and "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" (which mentionsLeonard Peltier), both commenting on the ongoing plight of Native Americans (see also thebook andfilm with the same name). Also in 1992, Sainte-Marie appeared in the television filmThe Broken Chain withWes Studi andPierce Brosnan along with First Nations Bahá'íPhil Lucas.
Her next album followed up in 1996 withUp Where We Belong, an album on which she re-recorded a number of her greatest hits in more unplugged and acoustic versions, including a re-release of "Universal Soldier". Sainte-Marie has exhibited her art at theGlenbow Museum in Calgary, theWinnipeg Art Gallery, theEmily Carr Gallery inVancouver and the American Indian Arts Museum inSanta Fe, New Mexico. In 1995, she provided the voice of the spirit in the magic mirror in HBO'sHappily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, which featured a Native American retelling of the Snow White fairy tale. Also in 1995, theIndigo Girls released two versions of Sainte-Marie's protest song "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" on their album1200 Curfews.
In 1996, she started the Nihewan Foundation, a philanthropic non-profit fund for American Indian Education devoted to improving Native American students' participation in learning. The wordnihewan comes from the Cree language and means "talk Cree", which implies "be your culture". Sainte-Marie founded theCradleboard Teaching Project in October 1996 using funds from her Nihewan Foundation and with a two-year grant from theW. K. Kellogg Foundation ofBattle Creek, Michigan, with projects acrossMohawk,Cree,Ojibwe,Menominee,Coeur d'Alene,Navajo,Quinault,Hawaiian, andApache communities in eleven states, partnered with a non-Native class of the same grade level for Elementary,Middle, and High School grades in the disciplines of Geography, History, Social Studies, Music and Science and produced a multimedia curriculum CD,Science: Through Native American Eyes.[53]
In 2000, Sainte-Marie gave the commencement address atHaskell Indian Nations University.[54] In 2002 she sang at theKennedy Space Center for CommanderJohn Herrington, USN, aChickasaw and the first Native American astronaut.[55] In 2003 she became a spokesperson for theUNESCOAssociated Schools Project Network in Canada.[56] In 2002, a track written and performed by Sainte-Marie, titled "Lazarus", was sampled byHip Hop producerKanye West and performed byCam'Ron and Jim Jones ofThe Diplomats. The track is called "Dead or Alive". In June 2007, she made a rare U.S. appearance at theClearwater Festival inCroton-on-Hudson, New York.
In 2008, a two-CD set titledBuffy/Changing Woman/Sweet America: The Mid-1970s Recordings was released, compiling the three studio albums that she recorded forABC Records andMCA Records between 1974 and 1976 (after departing her long-time labelVanguard Records). This was the first re-release of this material. In September 2008, Sainte-Marie made a comeback onto the music scene in Canada with the release of her studio albumRunning for the Drum. It was produced by Chris Birkett (producer of her 1992 and 1996best of albums). Sessions for this project commenced in 2006 in Sainte-Marie's home studio in Hawaii and partly in France. They continued until spring 2007.[citation needed] In 2015, Sainte-Marie released the albumPower in the Blood on True North Records. She had a television appearance on May 22, 2015, withDemocracy Now! to discuss the record and her musical and activist career. On September 21, 2015,Power in the Blood was named the winner of the2015 Polaris Music Prize.[57] Also in 2015,A Tribe Called Red released an electronic remix of Sainte-Marie's song, "Working for the Government".[58]
In 2016, Sainte-Marie toured North America with Mark Olexson (bass), Anthony King (guitar), Michel Bruyere (drums), and Kibwe Thomas (keyboards).[59] In 2017, she released the single "You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)", a collaboration with fellow Polaris Music Prize laureate,Tanya Tagaq.[60] The song was inspired byGeorge Attla, a championdog sled racer from Alaska.[61] On November 29, 2019, a 50th-anniversary edition of Sainte-Marie's 1969 album,Illuminations, was released on vinyl byConcord Records, the company that boughtVanguard Records, the original publisher of the album.[62] Sainte-Marie is the subject ofBuffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, a 2022 documentary film byMadison Thomas.[63] In the same year theNational Arts Centre stagedBuffy Sainte-Marie: Starwalker, a tribute concert of musicians performing Sainte-Marie's songs.[64] On August 3, 2023, Sainte-Marie issued a statement announcing her retirement from live performances, due to health concerns.[65]
In 1964, while on a trip to thePiapot Cree reserve in southern Saskatchewan for apowwow, she was adopted by the youngest son of ChiefPiapot, Emile Piapot, and his wife, Clara Starblanket Piapot, in accordance withCree Nation tradition.[17]
Although not an adherent, Sainte-Marie became an active friend of theBahá'í faith, appearing at concerts for and conferences and conventions surrounding the religion. In 1992, she appeared in the musical event prelude to theBaháʼí World Congress, a double concert,"Live Unity: The Sound of the World" (1992) with video broadcast and documentary.[66] In the video documentary of the event Sainte-Marie is seen on theDini Petty Show explaining the Bahá'í teaching ofprogressive revelation.[67] She also appears in the 1985 videoMona With The Children by Douglas John Cameron.[68] However, while she supports a universal sense of religion, she does not subscribe to any particular religion. "I gave a lot of support to Bahá'í people in the '80s and '90s ... Bahá'í people, as people of all religions, is something I'm attracted to ... I don't belong to any religion. ... I have a huge religious faith or spiritual faith but I feel as though religion ... is the first thing thatracketeers exploit. ... But that doesn't turn me against religion ...[69]: 16:15–18:00min
Sainte-Marie applied forCanadian citizenship through her Cree lawyer,Delia Opekokew, in 1980.[70] In 2017, she stated that she does not have a Canadian passport and is aUS citizen.[71]
In 1968, Sainte-Marie married a surfing instructor, Dewain Bugbee, but later divorced.[72] She then married Sheldon Wolfchild with whom she had a son.[73] After a second divorce, she then marriedJack Nitzsche, her co-writer on "Up Where We Belong" to whom she was married for seven years during the 1980s.[74]
Sainte-Marie has claimed[75] that she was born on thePiapot 75reserve in theQu'Appelle Valley,Saskatchewan, Canada, toCree parents.[15][76][77] She has also claimed that, at the age of two or three, she was taken from her parents as part of theSixties Scoop—a government policy, started in 1951, by which Indigenous children were taken from their families, communities, and cultures for placement with families that were not of First Nations heritage.[78][77]
Early in her career, various newspapers referred to her asAlgonquin, full-blooded Algonquin,Mi'kmaq, and half-Mi'kmaq.[77] The first reference to Sainte-Marie being Cree that CBC News could locate during its investigation of her identity came in December 1963, when theVancouver Sun called her a "Cree Indian".[77] Sainte-Marie reiterated that she has community ties with the Piapot First Nation and that she was adopted as an adult by Chief Emile Piapot and Clara Starblanket.[77] Emile's great-granddaughter Ntawnis Piapot has corroborated this, saying Sainte-Marie was adopted according to traditional Cree customs over "days and months and years".[79]
Some members of the Sainte-Marie family had attempted to clarify her European ancestry in the 1960s and 1970s, but the singer threatened them with legal action for doing so.[77] In December 1964, Arthur Santamaria, Sainte-Marie's paternal uncle, wrote to theWakefield Daily Item, which published his editorial that Sainte-Marie "has no Indian blood in her" and "not a bit" of Cree heritage.[77] Her brother, Alan Sainte-Marie, also wrote to newspapers, including theDenver Post in 1972, to clarify that his sister was not born on a reservation, has Caucasian parents, and that "to associate her with the Indian and to accept her as his spokesman is wrong".[77]
Alan Sainte-Marie's daughter Heidi has stated that, in 1975, her father had met Buffy and a PBS producer forSesame Street while working as a commercial pilot. She has said that the producer later asked her father if he was Indigenous because he did not look like he was. Her father clarified that they were of European ancestry and not Indigenous.[77] On November 7, 1975, Alan Sainte-Marie received a letter from a law firm representing Buffy Sainte-Marie, which said, "We have been advised that you have without provocation disparaged and perhaps defamed Buffy and maliciously interfered with her employment opportunities." The letter also stated that no expense would be spared in pursuing legal remedies.[77] Included with the law firm letter was a handwritten note from Buffy Sainte-Marie to her brother stating that she would expose him for allegedly sexually abusing her as a child if he continued speaking about her ancestry.[77] He decided to back off from his letter-writing campaign and a month later on December 9, 1975, Buffy made her first appearance onSesame Street.[77]
On October 27, 2023, an investigation by the CBC'sThe Fifth Estate television program contradicted Sainte-Marie's career-long claims of Indigenous ancestry. It included interviews with some of her relatives and located her birth certificate which listed her as white and her supposed adopted parents as her birth parents.[77] In contrast, Sainte-Marie's 2018 authorized biography states she was "probably born" on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan,[80] and throughout her adult life she claimed she was adopted and does not know where she was born or who her biological parents are.[77] There is no known official record of her adoption.[77]
On the day before the broadcast ofThe Fifth Estate, the Descendants of Piapot and Starblanket issued a statement defending Sainte-Marie's ties to the Piapot First Nation, saying: "We claim her as a member of our family and all of our family members are from the Piapot First Nation. To us, that holds far more weight than any paper documentation or colonial record keeping ever could." They also criticized the allegations against Sainte-Marie as being "hurtful, ignorant, colonial — and racist".[81]
As part of its reporting, the CBC also published Sainte-Marie's official birth certificate. It indicates that she was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts, to her white parents, Albert and Winifred Santamaria.[1] Her son Cody says she obtained Native identity through "naturalization" and not by birth.[82] To verify Sainte-Marie's early Mi'kmaq identity claims, her younger sister took a DNA test which showed that she had "almost no" Native American ancestry and she says she is genetically related to Sainte-Marie's son, which would not be possible if Sainte-Marie was adopted as she claimed.[82]
Responding to the CBC News findings, the acting chief of the Piapot First Nation, Ira Lavallee, noted that despite her false claims of Indigenous ancestry, Sainte-Marie remained accepted, saying: "We do have one of our families in our community that did adopt her. Regardless of her ancestry, that adoption in our culture to us is legitimate."[83] In late November 2023, Sainte-Marie deleted all claims of being Cree and born on Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan from her official website. Lavallee said that Sainte-Marie should take a DNA test to clear up the confusion: "That's something that anyone in my community can do and would not have fear of doing because we know who we are and what we are, and it's easily provable through a DNA test. If Buffy did that, that's one thing that could clear all this up."[84] Cree authorDarrel J. McLeod said that Sainte-Marie is an honorary member of the Piapot family, but that growing up with a white family allowed her to develop her talent and audience from a young age and that she should "apologize, come clean, stop gaslighting us and find a way to make amends".[85]
In late November 2023, following the award of an International Emmy to a documentary film about her life (Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On), Sainte-Marie stated, "My mother told me that I was adopted and that I was Native, but there was no documentation as was common for Indigenous children at the time" adding that "I don't know where I'm from or who my birth parents are, and I will never know." She also stated, "I have never known if my birth certificate was real."[86][87]
Sainte-Marie has been awarded 15 honorary doctorates. With regard to the University of Massachusetts, her website states that she was awarded an "Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts" in 1983. However, in an interview published in 2009, she stated that "I also got a teaching degree from the University of Massachusetts and later, a PhD in fine arts".[88]
| University | Title | Year Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| University of Regina | Honorary Doctor of Laws | 1996[89][90] |
| Lakehead University | Honorary Doctor of Letters | 2000[91] |
| University of Saskatchewan | Honorary Doctor of Humanities | 2003[92] |
| Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design | Honorary Doctor of Letters | 2007[93] |
| Carleton University | Honorary Doctor of Laws | 2008[94] |
| University of Western Ontario | Honorary Doctor of Music | 2009[95] |
| Ontario College of Art and Design | Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts | 2010[96] |
| Brandon University | Honorary Doctor of Music | 2010[97] |
| Wilfrid Laurier University | Honorary Doctor of Letters | 2010[98] |
| University of British Columbia | Honorary Doctor of Letters | 2012[99][100] |
| Vancouver Island University | Honorary Doctor of Laws | 2016[101] |
| University of Lethbridge | Honorary Doctor of Laws | 2017[102] |
| Dalhousie University | Honorary Doctor of Laws | 2018[103] |
| University of Toronto | Honorary Doctor of Laws | 2019[104] |
| Award | Year Awarded | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal | 2002[105] | Revoked 2025[106] | |
| Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal | 2012[105] | Revoked 2025[106] | |
| Juno Humanitarian Award | 2017[107] | Revoked 2025[106] | Awarded asAllan Waters Humanitarian Award |
| Companion of theOrder of Canada | 2019[108] | Terminated 2025[109] | Promotion from Officer in 1997[110][111] |
| PARO Inaugural Women Voice Award | 2019[112] | ||
| Canadian Music Week Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award | 2020[113] | ||
| TIFFJeff Skoll Award in Impact Media | 2022[114][115] |
| Award | Year Awarded | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Up Where We Belong" | 1983[5] | Joint winner with Jack Nitzsche andWill Jennings | |
| Canadian Music Hall of Fame Inductee | 1995 | Revoked 2025[116] | |
| Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award | 2008[117] | Awards now known as Indigenous Music Awards | |
| Governor General's Performing Arts Award | 2010[118] | Revoked 2025[119] | |
| Polaris Music Prize | 2015[120][121] | Revoked 2025[116] | forPower in the Blood |
| Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year | 2018[122] | Revoked 2025[116] | forMedicine Songs |
| Indigenous Music Awards for Best Folk Album | 2018[123] | forMedicine Songs | |
| Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductee | 2019[124][125][126] | ||
| Polaris Heritage Prize forIt's My Way! | 2020[127] | Revoked 2025[116] |
In 2023, Buffy Sainte-Marie's false claims to an Indigenous identity were revealed byThe Fifth Estate. Since then, there have been calls to rescind awards given to Sainte-Marie that were meant for Indigenous people.[11] Indigenous musicians who lost to Sainte-Marie have expressed their disappointment. Issiqut Anguk, sister of singerKelly Fraser who lost the 2018Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year to her, wrote that Fraser "respected Buffy so much and it hurts to hear that maybe, just maybe it would've changed Kelly's life if she won the Juno award and Buffy didn't."[11] The Indigenous Women's Collective expressed dismay at Sainte-Marie's winning a 2023International Emmy Award for her documentaryBuffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On and have asked the Juno Awards to revisit the 2018 category to "explore ways of righting a past wrong. All Indigenous artists in this 2018 category should be reconsidered for this rightful honour."[10] Tim Johnson, the former associate director of theNational Museum of the American Indian says her Juno awards should be rescinded and the Indigenous musicians who lost against Sainte-Marie should be considered her victims.[8] Rhonda Head, an award-winning opera singer from theOpaskwayak Cree Nation says, "She won awards that were an accolade, that were meant for Indigenous musicians and that's what really hurts me the most. I would like to see that her awards be taken away forever, for her not being truthful and taking up space."[9]
On November 8, 2023, the University of British Columbia First Nations House of Learning issued a statement explaining that, in light of the ancestry issues of Buffy Sainte-Marie, they were deciding on the next steps regarding the honorary degree UBC had awarded Sainte-Marie in 2012.[130] The university removed that statement from their website at some point after April 2024 with no further explanation on the status of the honorary degree.[citation needed]
On February 7, 2025, the Government of Canada published a document stating that Sainte-Marie had beenremoved from the Order of Canada by Governor GeneralMary Simon on January 3, 2025. Appointments and terminations to the Order of Canada are both made on the basis of an advisory council.[109][131] In March 2025, Sainte-Marie had herGovernor General's Performing Arts Award,Polaris Music Prizes,Juno Awards, andCanadian Music Hall of Fame induction rescinded because she was deemed no longer to meet eligibility criteria owing to her not being a Canadian citizen.[132][133]
| Year | Album[52] | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN [134] | AUS [135] | UK [136] | US [137] | ||
| 1964 | It's My Way! | — | — | — | — |
| 1965 | Many a Mile | — | — | — | — |
| 1966 | Little Wheel Spin and Spin | — | — | — | 97 |
| 1967 | Fire & Fleet & Candlelight | — | — | — | 126 |
| 1968 | I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again | — | — | — | 171 |
| 1969 | Illuminations | — | — | — | — |
| 1971 | She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina | — | 47 | — | 182 |
| 1972 | Moonshot | — | — | — | 134 |
| 1973 | Quiet Places | — | — | — | — |
| 1974 | Buffy | — | — | — | — |
| 1975 | Changing Woman | — | — | — | — |
| 1976 | Sweet America | — | — | — | — |
| 1992 | Coincidence and Likely Stories | 63 | — | 39 | — |
| 1996 | Up Where We Belong | — | — | — | — |
| 2008 | Running for the Drum | — | — | — | — |
| 2015 | Power in the Blood | — | — | — | — |
| 2017 | Medicine Songs | — | — | — | — |
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 1985 | Attla: A Motion Picture Soundtrack Album (withWilliam Ackerman)[138] |
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| US[137] | ||
| 1970 | The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie | 142 |
| 1971 | The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie Vol. 2 | — |
| 1974 | Native North American Child: An Odyssey | — |
| 1976 | Indian Girl (European release) | — |
| A Golden Hour of the Best Of (UK release) | — | |
| 2003 | The Best of the Vanguard Years | — |
| 2008 | Buffy/Changing Woman/Sweet America | — |
| 2010 | The Pathfinder: Buried Treasures – The Mid-70's Recordings | — |
| Year | Single[52] | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN [139] | CAN AC [140] | AUS [135] | UK [136] | US [141] | |||
| 1965 | "Until It's Time for You to Go" | — | — | — | — | — | Many a Mile |
| 1970 | "The Circle Game" | 76 | — | 83 | — | 109 | Fire & Fleet & Candlelight |
| 1971 | "Soldier Blue" | — | — | — | 7 | — | She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina |
| "I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again" | 86 | — | — | 34 | 98 | I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again | |
| 1972 | "Mister Can't You See" | 21 | — | 70 | — | 38 | Moonshot |
| "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo" | — | — | — | — | 98 | ||
| 1973 | "I Wanna Hold Your Hand Forever"[142] | — | — | — | — | — | N/A |
| 1974 | "Waves" | — | 27 | — | — | — | Buffy |
| 1992 | "The Big Ones Get Away" | 24 | 14 | — | 39 | — | Coincidence & Likely Stories |
| "Fallen Angels" | 50 | 26 | — | 57 | — | ||
| 1996 | "Until It's Time for You to Go" | — | 54 | — | — | — | Up Where We Belong |
| 2008 | "No No Keshagesh" | — | — | — | — | — | Running for the Drum |
| 2017 | "You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)" (featuringTanya Tagaq) | — | — | — | — | — | Medicine Songs |
| Year | Song(s) | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | "Dyed, Dead, Red" and "Hashishin"with Ry Cooder | Performance |
| 2019 | "The Circle Game" | Once Upon A Time In Hollywood |
Academy Award winner: Music – Original Song ("Up Where We Belong", Music by Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie; Lyrics by Will Jennings)
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)All winners have been published in each year-end Billboard issue since the category began in 1977.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) by Ann Boyles, also published in 1994–95 edition ofThe Baháʼí World, pp. 243–72.It is believed that Buffy Sainte-Marie was born in 1941 on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan, and taken from her biological parents when she was two or three. She was adopted by a visibly white couple in Massachusetts, though her adoptive mother, Winifred, self-identified as part Mi'kmaq. Sainte-Marie's experience of being adopted out of her culture and placed in a non-Indigenous family by child welfare services is an all-too-familiar story in Canada. This practice was later dubbed the Sixties Scoop, referring to the decade in which it was most prevalent (though it had gone on well before the 1960s and would go on for decades to come).
