Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous Ancestry Called Into Question
The singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie has claimed Indigenous ancestry since her rise in the 1960s, becoming an icon of Indigenous and Canadian culture in the process. But a new report has called Sainte-Marie’s identity into question. A CBC investigation revealed that Sainte-Marie had not been adopted by a white Italian family in Massachusetts, as she had previously said; she was actually born from them. A birth certificate shows that Sainte-Marie was born Beverly Jean Santamaria, to a white family in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Sainte-Marie, who had previously claimed she could not find her birth certificate, has defended her background in response. “I am proud of my Indigenous-American identity, and the deep ties I have to Canada and my Piapot family,” she said in a statement on Facebook. Sainte-Marie, who has won an Oscar and Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, has long been one of music’s more visible advocates for Indigenous communities.
Sainte-Marie has said she was unsuccessful in attempts to find her birth certificate and alleged it had been destroyed. Her lawyer also disputed the Massachusetts birth certificate to the CBC. But the CBC report also found many discrepancies in how Sainte-Marie claimed her identity throughout her career. In biographical materials, the musician had claimed she was born on the Piapot First Nation, a Cree community in Saskatchewan, Canada, and adopted after her mother’s death. But in early interviews, Sainte-Marie oscillated between claiming Algonquin, Mi’kmaq, and Cree ancestry. Sainte-Marie was later adopted into the Piapot family, after visiting the reservation. Members of the Piapot family defended Sainte-Marie’s Cree connection, telling the CBC, “Every understanding of our spiritual practices, the history our grandparents shared with us and the traditions of the Cree refute your suggestion that our Auntie Buffy is not Indigenous or a member of our community.”
However, members of the Massachusetts family Sainte-Marie grew up in questioned her Indigenous claims. Her niece told the CBC that Sainte-Marie is “clearly not Indigenous,” while her sister refuted claims Sainte-Marie was adopted. Records, including a 1945 life-insurance policy and the 1950 census, list Sainte-Marie as white. Her brother had written to newspapers to dispute Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous ancestry, telling the Denver Post in 1972, “To associate her with the Indian and to accept her as his spokesman is wrong.” Sainte-Marie reportedly made legal threats against her family over questioning her background.
Sainte-Marie retired from performing earlier this year due to arthritis and a shoulder injury. She declined an interview with the CBC through her lawyer, who said, “Ms. Sainte-Marie is entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy about her personal genealogical and family history.” In an independent statement, Sainte-Marie emphasized her own uncertainty of her background. “I have always struggled to answer questions about who I am,” she said. “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.”
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