Oscar-winning “Indigenous” musician Buffy Sainte-Marie has responded to a long exposé concluding that she seems to have no native ancestry and is, instead, a white woman born in Massachusetts.
Sainte-Marie is famous throughout Canada and has been recognized as the first Indigenous person to win an Academy Award, which she received for co-writing the song “Up Where We Belong,” the theme from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. She is also acclaimed for having won the Polaris Music Prize in 2015 for her album Power In The Blood.
Sainte-Marie began her rise to fame in the 1960s among artists including Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell. Her songs have been covered by such famed performers as Elvis, Barbra Streisand, and Glen Campbell.
But while Sainte-Marie has spent nearly 60 years of public life claiming to be born of an Indigenous mother, the CBC became skeptical and investigated her story. The result was a lengthy exposé published Friday alleging she has no Native blood at all, and she was born to white parents in the U.S.A., not to a Cree mother in Canada.
In its investigation into the star’s background, titled “Who is the real Buffy Sainte-Marie?,” the CBC uncovered a 1941 Stoneham, Massachusetts, birth certificate under the singer’s birth name, Beverly Jean Santamaria, which listed her parents as white.
The CBC also found that her parents later changed their last name to St. Marie to avoid anti-Italian sentiment that sprang up during World War Two, and from then on, she went by that last name.
The news outlet also turned up Sainte-Marie’s sisters and brother, none of whom present as Indians, and one of which showed a letter the singer sent from a lawyer threatening to sue her if she spoke about Sainte-Marie’s childhood and parentage.
But more damning, the CBC also took the time to trace back all the claims Sainte-Marie has made about being related to the Native peoples and found that she has made all sorts of conflicting claims over the years. The report found that in 1963 Sainte-Marie variously claimed she was related to the Algonquin tribe, the Mi’kmaq tribe, and the Cree tribe all in the same year in interviews and other materials.
She has also related different stories about her “Indian mother.” She has claimed to have been adopted by a white family, claimed she did not know her Indian mother, then claimed her Indian mother told her she could not keep her, later said her Indian mother died young in a car accident, then claimed her Indian mother died giving birth to her at the Piapot First Nation in Canada.
In 2018, Saint-Marie claimed that the Canadian government forcibly took her from her Indian family in the early 1960s during a time that First Peoples in Canada call the “Sixties Scoop.”
It appears she began making this claim to substantiate her vague recollections of her origins.
“In Canada, we had something that, sometimes, a little bit later referred to as the ‘Big Scoop’ where Native children were removed from the home,” she said, according to the CBC. “They’re assigned a birthday. They’re assigned kind of a biography. So, in many cases, adoptive people don’t really know what the true story is.”
Though Sainte-Marie did not respond to the CBC’s requests for comment before publishing its exposé, she has spoken out on social media.
In an Oct. 26 post on X/Twitter, captioned “My Truth As I know it,” Sainte-Marie defended herself by reiterating her vague childhood memories and blasting the CBC for “deeply hurtful allegations” about her biography.
She also responded to the CBC’s evidence that casts serious doubts on her late claims of having suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her brother, Alan, who died in 2011 and who she started accusing after his death.
In her reply to the accusations of stolen ancestry, Sainte-Marie says, “I am proud of my Indigenous-American identity, and the deep ties I have to Canada and my Piapot family.”
My Truth As I know it – Buffy pic.twitter.com/CZjBMOcKP9
— Buffy Sainte-Marie (@BuffySteMarie) October 26, 2023
She then asserts directly that her birth mother was “part Mi’kmaq” and that her adopted mother told Sainte-Marie all about her Indian heritage when she was a child. She also alleges that “there was no documentation” for her birth, “as was common for Indigenous children born in the 1940’s.”
Sainte-Marie did not even address the birth certificate or her sisters but did, again, accuse her dead brother of sexual abuse.
“I may not know where I was born,” she says in conclusion, “but I know who I am.”
Here is the full text of the singer’s reply to the charges:
It is with great sadness, and a heavy heart, that I am forced to respond to deeply hurtful allegations that I expect will be reported in the media soon. Last month, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, contacted me to question my identity and the sexual assault I experienced as a child.
To relive those truths, and revisit questions I made peace with decades ago, has been beyond traumatic. But I know I owe it to those I love, and those who support me, to respond.
I am proud of my Indigenous-American identity, and the deep ties I have to Canada and my Piapot family.
What I know about my Indigenous ancestry I learned from my growing up mother, who was part Mi’kmaq, and my own research later in life. My mother told me many things, including that I was adopted and that I was Native, but there was no documentation as was common for Indigenous children born in the 1940’s. Later in my life, as an adult, she told me some things I have never shared out of respect for her that I hate sharing now, including that I may have been born on “the wrong side of the blanket”. This was her story to tell, not mine.
As a young adult, I was adopted by Emile Piapot (son of Chief Piapot, Treaty 4 Adhesion signatory), and Clara Starblanket Piapot (daughter of Chief Starblanket, Treaty 4 signatory), in accordance with Cree law and customs. They were kind, loving, and proud to claim me as their own. I love my Piapot family and am so lucky to have them in my life.
I have always struggled to answer questions about who I am. For a long time, I tried to discover information about my background. Through that research what became clear, and what I’ve always been honest about, is that I don’t know where I’m from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know. Which is why, to be questioned in this way today is painful, both for me, and for my two families I love so dearly.
My Indigenous identity is rooted in a deep connection to a community which has had a profound role in shaping my life and my work. For my entire life, I have championed Indigenous, and Native American causes when nobody else would, or had the platform to do so. I am proud to have been able to speak up for Indigenous issues. I have always tried to bridge gaps between communities and educate people to live in love and kindness.
This is my truth. And while there are many things I do not know; I have been proud to honestly share my story throughout my life.
Painfully, the CBC has also forced me to relive and defend my experience as a survivor of sexual abuse which I endured at the hands of my brother, as well as another family member — whom I have never publicly named.
I could never forget these violations. It is something I have lived with all my life. Speaking about my experience is difficult, and although I have shared privately, I have rarely done so publicly. I’ve spoken up because I know others cannot, and to have this questioned and sensationalized by Canada’s public broadcaster is appalling.
While these questions have hurt me, I know they will also hurt hose I love. My family. My friends. And all those who have seen themselves in my story. All I can say is what I know to be true: I know who I love, I know who loves me. And I know who claims me.
I may not know where I was born, but I know who I am.
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