Buffy Sainte-Marie (born Beverley Jean Santamaria; February 20, 1941[1]) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist.

[2] 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.

[5] Since the early 1960s, Sainte-Marie claimed Indigenous Canadian ancestry, but a 2023 investigation by CBC News concluded she was born in the United States and is of Italian and English descent.

In the 1950s, Sainte-Marie attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, earning degrees in teaching and Asian philosophy,[13] where she says she graduated as one of the top ten students of her class.

[13] In her early twenties she toured alone, developing her craft and performing in various concert halls, folk music festivals, and First Nations communities across the United States, Canada, and abroad.

She spent a considerable amount of time in the coffeehouses of downtown Toronto's old Yorkville district, and New York City's Greenwich Village as part of the early to mid-1960s folk scene, often alongside other emerging artists such as Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell, the latter of whom she introduced to Elliot Roberts, who became her manager.

[16] In 1963, recovering from a throat infection, Sainte-Marie became addicted to codeine and recovering from the experience became the basis of her song "Cod'ine",[15] later recorded by Donovan, Janis Joplin, the Charlatans, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Man, the Litter, the Leaves, Jimmy Gilmer, the Fireballs, Gram Parsons,[17] Charles Brutus McClay,[18] the Barracudas (spelled "Codeine"),[19] the Golden Horde,[20] Nicole Atkins and Courtney Love.

[24][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.

[28] In 1967, she released Fire & Fleet & Candlelight, which contained her interpretation of the traditional Yorkshire dialect song "Lyke Wake Dirge".

Sainte-Marie sang the opening song, "The Circle Game" (written by Joni Mitchell),[16] in Stuart Hagmann's film The Strawberry Statement (1970);[30] and in the TV show Then Came Bronson episode "Mating Dance for Tender Grass" (1970), she sang and portrayed Tender Grass, the episode's titular character.

[13][41] The song "Up Where We Belong" (which Sainte-Marie co-wrote with lyricist Will Jennings and musician Jack Nitzsche) was performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes for the film An Officer and a Gentleman.

[49] Sainte-Marie voiced a Cheyenne character, Kate Bighead, in the 1991 made-for-TV movie Son of the Morning Star, telling the Indian side of the Battle of the Little Bighorn where the Sioux chief, Sitting Bull, defeated Lieutenant Colonel George Custer.

[50] Recorded in 1990 at home in Hawaii on her computer and transmitted via modem through the Internet to producer Chris Birkett in London, England,[16] the album included the politically charged songs "The Big Ones Get Away" and "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" (which mentions Leonard Peltier), both commenting on the ongoing plight of Native Americans (see also the book and film with the same name).

Also in 1992, Sainte-Marie appeared in the television film The Broken Chain with Wes Studi and Pierce Brosnan along with First Nations Bahá'í Phil Lucas.

Also in 1995, the Indigo Girls released two versions of Sainte-Marie's protest song "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" on their album 1200 Curfews.

Sainte-Marie founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project in October 1996 using funds from her Nihewan Foundation and with a two-year grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan, with projects across Mohawk, Cree, Ojibwe, Menominee, Coeur d'Alene, Navajo, Quinault, Hawaiian, and Apache 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.

In September 2008, Sainte-Marie made a comeback onto the music scene in Canada with the release of her studio album Running for the Drum.

[56] In 2016, Sainte-Marie toured North America with Mark Olexson (bass), Anthony King (guitar), Michel Bruyere (drums), and Kibwe Thomas (keyboards).

[57] In 2017, she released the single "You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)", a collaboration with fellow Polaris Music Prize laureate, Tanya Tagaq.

[66] 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".

[66] Her brother, Alan Sainte-Marie, also wrote to newspapers, including the Denver 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".

[66] Alan Sainte-Marie's daughter Heidi has stated that, in 1975, her father had met Buffy and a PBS producer for Sesame Street while working as a commercial pilot.

[66] 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.

[66] On October 27, 2023, an investigation by the CBC's The Fifth Estate television program contradicted Sainte-Marie's career-long claims of Indigenous ancestry.

[71] 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.

"[72] In late November 2023, Sainte-Marie deleted all claims of being Cree and born on Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan from her official website.

"[10] Tim Johnson, the former associate director of the National 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 the Opaskwayak 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.

Although not a practitioner, Sainte-Marie became an active friend of the Bahá'í faith, appearing at concerts for and conferences and conventions surrounding the religion.

[117] In the video documentary of the event Sainte-Marie is seen on the Dini Petty Show explaining the Bahá'í teaching of progressive revelation.