Buffy Sainte-Marie Indigenous roots controversy rocks Canada First Nations

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...rie-documentary-controversy-indigenous-canada

Allegations in a documentary that the popular American folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie misrepresented her Indigenous roots have rattled First Nations communities in Canada, where she claims to have been born, highlighting the complex legacy of an artist whose decades-long career is defined by advocating for Indigenous rights.

Sainte-Marie describes herself as a “Cree singer-songwriter” has long traced her identity to the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan, where she claims she was born in 1941. Sainte-Marie says she was taken from her biological mother when she was an infant and raised by a white family in the US.

But last week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation released a documentary calling into question that narrative and her claims to have Indigenous roots.

Never liked the folk genre, and this singer is likely too old for even most old people here to remember. The evidence that she is in fact a white person claiming to be an Indian, such as a birth certificate, seems pretty strong as discussed in multiple media accounts. So the question is -- if not claiming to be an Indian would her career have been as much of a success, i.e., does her music stand stand on it's own merit? Did she in fact "rip off" real Indian musicians. Should she run for political office?

 

She was all part of that whole 'folk' and early 'folk-rock' scene that was all the rage back in the mid-60's, which included everybody from The Kingston Trio, Ian and Sylvia, and Bob Dylan, to Gordon Lightfoot and Joan Baez.

We used to refer to Buffy as "Buffy Sainte-Baez" because it was pretty obvious that she was trying to leverage her own popularity by imitating Joan Baez.... BTW, the best of that whole crop of female singers was probably Judy Collins.

But why would anyone even care if Buffy Sainte-Marie pretends to be an "Indian"? After all, Elizabeth "Pocahontas" Warren has been getting away with pretending to be an "Indian" for years, even though it's calculated that by even the most generous assessment, she's no more than 1/20th Native American herself!

 

IMHO Buffy provides a good case study in how liberalism works. Good humor. Like Steve Marting in "The Jerk."