Canadian musician and Indigenous activist Buffy Sainte-Marie has addressed questions surrounding her claims to First Nations ancestry, in light of an upcoming CBC News report by investigative show The Fifth Estate.
According to CBC, the episode, titled “Making an Icon,” set to air on Friday, examines allegations from family members that call into question Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous identity. The investigation, including genealogical documentation and historical research, aims to shed light on the singer’s claims.
In a statement released Thursday, Sainte-Marie said, “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.”
Sainte-Marie, who is in her early 80s, revealed she was contacted last month by CBC and described the allegations about her identity as “deeply hurtful.”
“To those who question my truth, I say with love, I know who I am,” she affirmed.
The musician has always been transparent about her past, sharing her story for 60 years. She describes herself as “a proud member of the Native community with deep roots in Canada.”
“I don’t know where I’m from, who my birth parents are, or how I ended up a misfit in a typical white Christian New England home,” she shared in a video posted on social media. “I realized decades ago that I would never have the answers.”
Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is shown in Saskatchewan during the filming of a 1994 CBC special. (CBC Still Image Library)
Sainte-Marie gained prominence in the 1960s with her singing, songwriting, and protest songs. She also appeared on Sesame Street and became the first Indigenous person to win an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1982 for co-writing “Up Where We Belong” from the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman.”
Her adoption story has been a significant part of her narrative. She was raised by Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie in Massachusetts, with the latter identifying as part Mi’kmaq. Her 2018 authorized biography states that there is no official record of her birth but suggests she was probably born Cree on Piapot, a First Nation in Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley, around 1940.
Delia Opekokew, Sainte-Marie’s former lawyer, conducted interviews with First Nations people of the area, including Noel Starblanket, a former national chief of the National Indian Brotherhood, to delve into the musician’s Indigenous identity. Starblanket shared an oral history account explaining that Sainte-Marie was born north of Piapot to a single woman who then gave the baby to an American family in the area.
Despite these accounts, the Piapot family asserts that allegations against Sainte-Marie are “hurtful, ignorant, colonial — and racist.” They confirm that she was adopted traditionally and is a recognized member of their family and the Piapot First Nation.
The investigation will be available Friday on CBCNews.ca at 4 a.m. ET, The Fifth Estate’s YouTube channel at 1 p.m. ET, and on CBC TV and CBC Gem at 9 p.m. ET.
