Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie

After spending her lifetime beingĀ aheadĀ of her time, Buffy Sainte-Marie is arguably the most oxymoronic figure in the history of popular music, indisputably iconic yet often overlooked, even ignored. ā€œHer omission from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is galling,ā€ wrote Andrea Warner, her official biographer, inĀ The Globe and MailĀ in 2021, and itā€™s difficult ā€“ millions would sayĀ impossibleĀ ā€“ to disagree.

OVERVIEW

In equal measure a singer, songwriter, musician, educator, activist and visual artist, Sainte-Marieā€™s extensive achievements include winningĀ Billboardā€™s Best New Artist award (1964); being the first singer to record a quadraphonic album (Illuminations,Ā 1969); winning an Academy, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award (for ā€œUp Where We Belong,ā€ 1983); being the first person to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts (1983); being the first recording artist to deliver an entire album using file-sharing software (Coincidences and Likely Stories, 1991); and being the first septuagenarian to receive the Polaris Music Prize (forĀ Power in the Blood, 2015).

Known as much for her political engagement as for her superb songwriting, unique melodic approach and compelling vocal style, Sainte-Marieā€™s tireless championing of Indigenous peopleā€™s rights over the past six decades is at least as impressive as her musical legacy. As Herbert Kupferberg wrote in The Boston Globe in 1970 ā€“ using language many modern ears would deem unsuitable for publication ā€“ ā€œthe best-known fighter for the American Indian since Geronimo is a spunky, sexy, 100-pound girl named Buffy Sainte-Marieā€ and as NPR music critic Ann Powers wrote in 2015 ā€“ using language considered more appropriate in the 21st century ā€“ sheā€™s ā€œmore BjorkĀ thanĀ Baez, more Kate Bush than Laurel Canyonā€¦a risk-taker, always chasing new sounds, and a plain talker when it comes to love and politics.ā€

As for music, Sainte-Marie has recorded 16 studio albums with consistent lyrical themes of love, war, religion and mysticism and her best-known song, ā€œUniversal Soldierā€ (written in 1963), has inspired 157 cover versions, according to a feature inĀ The GuardianĀ in November 2022, by singers as diverse as Elvis Presley, Donovan, Janis Joplin, Barbara Streisand, Glen Campbell, Courtney Love and Neko Case.

EARLY YEARS, ANCESTRY/ADOPTION CONTROVERSY

Throughout her career, Sainte-Marie has said that she was born on an Indian reserve in Canada ā€“ the biography on her official website says it was Piapot (Cree) Indian Reserve No. 75 in Saskatchewan ā€“ and adopted before the age of two following the deaths of her parents, as noted in the bookĀ A to Z of American Indian Women (Facts on File, 2008). Sheā€™s said repeatedly that all records of her biological parents were sealed, that sheā€™s never known her exact date of birth ā€“ including the year (though sheā€™s said she thinks it was 1941 or 1942) ā€“ and that Albert and Winifred Santamaria of Wakefield, Massachusetts, adopted her and named her Beverley Jean.

Her decades-long claims of having Indigenous ancestry and being adopted came into question in October 2023, however, when CBC News published a birth certificate showing that Sainte-Marie was born Beverley Jean Santamaria at New England Sanitarium and Hospital (now Boston Regional Medical Center) in Stoneham, Massachusetts, on February 20, 1941, to Albert and Winifred Irene Santamaria, making them her birth parents, not her adoptive ones. Hospital records note that the Santamarias were ā€œotherwise knownā€ by an abbreviated last name, Ste. Marie, and the birth certificate ā€“ which lists Albert, Winifred and Beverley Jean as ā€œwhiteā€ in the ā€œColor or Raceā€ section ā€“ was authenticated by Stoneham Town Clerk Maria Sagarino in December 2022.

Also in October 2023, as part of their investigative series The Fifth Estate, CBC Television ran an hour-long exposĆ© which concluded that Sainte-Marieā€™s assertions about her ethnicity and adoption are patently false. She denied the allegations that sheā€™s a pretendian, calling herself ā€œa proud member of the Native community with deep roots in Canadaā€ and insisting that sheā€™s never known her biological parents. ā€œI donā€™t know where Iā€™m from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know,ā€ she said in a written statement. ā€œTo those who question my truth, I say with love, I know who I am.ā€

Winifred Santamaria (nĆ©e Kenrick), an editor at Houghton Mifflin in Boston, was of English ancestry and claimed to be part Miā€™kmaq, Albert Santamaria was Italian-American and Sainte-Marie told The Guardian in November 2022 that her family was ā€œmoreĀ The Sopranos than Dances with Wolves.ā€Ā She completed her K-12 education in Wakefield and spent most summers in Maine.

MUSICAL BEGINNINGS

At age three, Sainte-Marie, started teaching herself how to play piano. ā€œAnd when I say that ā€˜I taught myself how to ā€˜play,ā€™ Iā€™m not kidding because to me it really wasĀ play,ā€ she said in 2015. ā€œAnd to this day itā€™s play and thatā€™s why itā€™s still good.ā€ By age four, she was writing poems and putting them to music.

At age 16, by then nicknamed ā€œBuffy,ā€ she taught herself guitar and ultimately found 32 different ways to tune the instrument, sheā€™s said, part of her lifelong draw to constant musical experimentation. ā€œAs a little kid, I banged on pots and pans, Iā€™d play with rubber bands, Iā€™d blow on grass, I played the mouth bow,ā€ she said in an interview withĀ Vogue. ā€œLater, I was using a Synclavier and a Fairlight, which were the earliest standing music computers.ā€

EARLY PERFORMANCES

In 1958, Sainte-Marie enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, two years beforeĀ Taj MahalĀ did the same. ā€œShe had a great fan base there at the university,ā€ Mahal said in 2006. ā€œAnd wherever she was gonna play, man, we wereĀ there.ā€ Using an elongated, hyphenated version of the Santamaria family ā€™s abbreviated last name ā€“ ā€œSainte-Marieā€ instead of ā€œSte. Marieā€ ā€“ she appeared at the universityā€™s Bowker Auditorium, the Saladin Tea House in Amherst and other small venues while majoring in Eastern philosophy and education, graduating in 1962 with a GPA that put her among the top 10 students in her class.

With no intention of becoming a professional musician, she planned to continue her studies in India and eventually become a teacher, but first she headed to Boston where, in the fall of 1962, began playing at folk venues like CafĆ© Yana and Someplace Else. In 1963, she started gigging at venues including The Second Fret in Philadelphia, San Remo Coffee House in Schenectady and Torontoā€™s Purple Onion Coffee House, where she wrote ā€œUniversal Soldierā€ that year as a protest against the rapidly escalating Vietnam War.

MOVE TO GREENWICH VILLAGE, VANGUARD SIGNING

In early 1964, Sainte-Marie relocated to Greenwich Village, staying at the YWCA on 14th Street. Within a few days of arrival, she appeared at Gerdeā€™s Folk City and 22-year old Bob Dylan was in the audience. ā€œHe heard me play, he liked it and he said, ā€˜Go see Sam [Hood, owner of The Gaslight CafĆ©]ā€™ and within a week or two [New York TimesĀ music critic] Robert Shelton came to see me play and wrote a glowing review,ā€ Sainte-Marie said in 2006. Hood posted an oversized copy of the review ā€“ headlined ā€œOld Music Taking on New Color: An Indian Girl Sings Her Compositions and Folk Songsā€ ā€“ at the Gaslightā€™s front entrance, and Vanguard Records signed Sainte-Marie less than two weeks later.

DEBUT ALBUM

In April 1964, her debut album,Ā Itā€™s My Way!, hit the shelves. A 13-song collection including 11 originals that critic William Ruhlman called ā€œone of the most scathing topical folk albums ever made,ā€ it established Sainte-Marie as the first female on the burgeoning singer-songwriter scene, years ahead debut albums by Janis Ian (1967), Laura Nyro (1967), Joni Mitchell (1968) and Carole King (1970). ā€œI didnā€™t know I was ahead of the pack at the time because I didnā€™t know there was going toĀ beĀ a pack,ā€ she toldĀ The GuardianĀ in 2022.

GROWING POPULARITY, CLUB 47 DEBUT, CREE FAMILY ADOPTION

In mid-1964, propelled by the popularity of songs like ā€œUniversal Soldier,ā€ ā€œCodā€™ineā€ and ā€œNow That the Buffaloā€™s Gone,ā€ Sainte-Marie began headlining at clubs across North America. In September that year, after she appeared at Wakefield Memorial High School (her alma mater) in June, she debuted atĀ Club 47Ā in Cambridge, whereĀ The Charles River Valley Boys,Ā Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band,Ā GeoffĀ andĀ Maria Muldaur,Ā Mitch Greenhill,Ā Tom Rush,Ā Eric von SchmidtĀ and Taj Mahal also appeared that month.

Later in 1964, Sainte-Marie traveled to Saskatchewan and, according to tribal custom, was adopted by a Cree family that said they were related to her biological parents. Following the CBC claim in 2023 that she was actually born to white parents in Massachusetts, the acting chief of Piapot First Nation, Ira Lavallee, said his community will continue to accept her as one of their own. “I can relate to and understand a lot of our people who feel betrayed and in a sense lied to by her claiming Indigenous ancestry, when in fact she may not be Indigenous,” he told CBC News. “We do have one of our families in our communityĀ that did adopt her.Ā Regardless of her ancestry, thatĀ adoptionĀ in our culture to us is legitimate.”

MANY A MILE, NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL DEBUT, OTHER ā€˜60S ALBUMS

In 1965, between appearances onĀ American Bandstand,Ā Soul Train,Ā The Johnny Cash ShowĀ andĀ The Tonight Show, Sainte-Marie recorded her second LP for Vanguard,Ā Many a Mile, which included ā€œUntil Itā€™s Time For You To Goā€ ā€“ covered by Bobby Darin, Roberta Flack, Elvis Presley, Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, Sonny & Cher, Bette Davis and others ā€“ and in 1966 she debuted at the Newport Folk Festival.

Vanguard issued four more of her albums before the end of the ā€˜60s,Ā Little Wheel Spin and SpinĀ (1966),Ā Fire & Fleet & CandlelightĀ (1967),Ā Iā€™m Gonna Be a Country Girl AgainĀ (1968) andĀ IlluminationsĀ (1969), the last of which was hailed as a creative tour de force ā€“ it was recorded in quadrophonic using a Buchla synthesizer ā€“ but was a commercial nonevent.

1970S ALBUMS, SESAME STREET

The first half of the 1970s was relentlessly busy for Sainte-Marie, who played shows from Toronto to Tokyo. She recorded three more LPs for Vanguard,Ā She Used to Wanna Be a BallerinaĀ (1971),Ā MoonshotĀ (1972) andĀ Quiet PlacesĀ (1973), two albums for MCA,Ā BuffyĀ (1974) ā€“ which outsold all of her Vanguard albums combined ā€“ andĀ Changing WomanĀ (1975) and one disc for ABCĀ Sweet America (1976). From 1975-1980, Sainte-Marie made regular appearances on the childrenā€™s program Sesame StreetĀ and in a 1977 episode she became the first person to breastfeed on American television.

ā€œUP WHERE WE BELONG,ā€ BLACKLISTING

In the 1980s, Sainte-Marie stayed comparatively out of the limelight musically with the exception of co-writing (with then-husband Jack Nitzsche) ā€œUp Where We Belongā€ for the filmĀ An Officer and a Gentleman. The tune won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Original Song. Sainte-Marie has said that in the ā€˜80s she learned that sheā€™d been blacklisted by the US government going as far back as the mid-1960s. ā€œ[1963-68 US President Lyndon B. Johnson]Ā had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music,ā€ she explained in a 1999 interview.

COINCIDENCES AND LIKELY STORIES, RECENT ALBUMS

In mid-1991, she recordedĀ Coincidences and Likely Stories, her first album in 16 years, issued in January 1992 by Ensign/Chrysalis/EMI. In 1995, Sainte-Marie was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, in 1997 she was awarded the Order of Canada and in 1998 she received a star on Canadaā€™s Walk of Fame in Toronto.

In September 2008, after Sainte-Marie took another 16-year hiatus to focus on educational projects, activism and her visual art, Gypsy Boy Music issued her 14th album,Ā Running for the Drum, followed by True North releasing her most recent LPs,Ā Power in the BloodĀ (2015) ā€“ which won Canadaā€™s Polaris Music Prize ā€“ andĀ Medicine SongsĀ (2017).

CARRY IT ON DOCUMENTARY

In September 2022, the 90-minute documentaryĀ Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It OnĀ premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. An in-depth review of her life and career both as artist and activist, it includes interviews withĀ singer-songwriters Robbie Robertson, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, Steppenwolf frontman John Kay,Ā broadcaster George Stroumboulopoulos and Andrea Warner, author ofĀ Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized BiographyĀ (Greystone Books, 2018).

Speaking withĀ Point of ViewĀ magazine upon the filmā€™s release, director Madison Thomas cited Sainte-Marieā€™s remarkably forward-thinking vision throughout the decades. ā€œBuffy is 50 years ahead of us. Hands down,ā€ she said. ā€œItā€™s across the board in every facet of her life. Itā€™s not too late for the rest of us to catch up and I think a good start is hearing her story and listening to her music and message.ā€

(by D.S. Monahan)

Published On: March 17, 2023