Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie in 1968

Buffy Sainte-Marie (born February 20, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist.

From the early 1960s, Sainte-Marie claimed Indigenous Canadian ancestry, but a 2023 CBC News investigation confirmed she was born in the United States, and is of Italian and English descent. Some Indigenous musicians and organizations called for awards she won while falsely claiming an Indigenous identity to be rescinded. Many of her awards and honours were subsequently revoked or surrendered, including her membership in the Order of Canada, her induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, her Juno Awards, and her Polaris Music Prizes.

Quotes

• He's five feet two and he's six feet four
  He fights with missiles and with spears
  He's all of thirty-one and he's only seventeen
  He's been a soldier for a thousand years.
  He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an athiest, a Jain,
  a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
  and he knows he shouldn't kill
  and he knows he always will
  . . . He's the universal soldier and he really is to blame
  • "Universal Soldier", from It's My Way! (1964)

Take heart and take care of your link with Life

• It ain't money that makes the world go round
  That's only temporary confusion
  It ain't governments that make the people strong
  It's the opposite illusion
  Look right now and you will see
  they're only here by the skin of our teeth as it is
  so take heart and take care of your link with Life.
  ... Life is beautiful
  if you got the sense to take care of your source of perfection
  Mother Nature, She's the daughter of God and the source of all protection.
  Look right now
  and you will see she's only here by the skin of her teeth as it is
  so take heart and take care of your link with Life
  • "Carry It On", from Power in the Blood (2015)

Quotes about

• One of our great musicians.
  • Linda Hogan (writer) Introduction to Indios (2012)

• I always loved Buffy Sainte-Marie. I loved how she would close her eyes when she sang. … She had great movement, and she never hit the mic with her nose! I never got quite as good at it as she was, but I loved that movement.
  • Joni Mitchell Interview (2021)

External links

• Official website
• Buffy Sainte-Marie interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
• Encyclopedic article on Buffy Sainte-Marie on Wikipedia
• Media related to Buffy Sainte-Marie on Wikimedia Commons