Buffy Sainte-Marie
Encyclopedia
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC
(born February 20, 1941) is a Canadian
Cree
singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas
. Her singing and writing repertoire includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism. She recorded one country album, I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again
, in Nashville, and her Academy Award-winning "Up Where We Belong
" is considered "pure pop
".
She founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project
, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding Native Americans. She has won recognition and many awards and honours for both her music and her work in education and social activism.
Indian reserve in the Qu'Appelle
valley, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was orphaned and later adopted, growing up in Maine
with parents Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, who were related to her biological parents. She attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst
, earning degrees (BA 1963 and PhD 1983) in teaching and Oriental philosophy. and graduating in the top ten of her class.
In 1964 on a return trip to the Piapot Cree reserve in Canada for a Powwow
she was welcomed and (in a Cree Nation context) adopted by the youngest son of Chief Piapot
, Imu Piapot and his wife, who added to Sainte-Marie's cultural value of, and place in, native culture.
In 1968 she married surfing teacher Dewain Bugbee of Hawaii
; they divorced in 1971. She married Sheldon Wolfchild from Minnesota in 1975; they have a son, Dakota "Cody" Starblanket Wolfchild. That union also ended and she married, thirdly, to Jack Nitzsche
in the early 1980s, but her current partner is Chuck Wilson (since 1993). She currently lives on Kauai
.
She became an active friend of the Bahá'í Faith
by the mid-1970s when she is said to have appeared in the 1973 Third National Baha’i Youth Conference at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and has continued to appear at concerts, conferences and conventions of that religion since then. In 1992, she appeared in the musical event prelude to the Bahá'í World Congress
, a double concert "Live Unity: The Sound of the World" in 1992 with video broadcast and documentary. In the video documentary of the event Sainte-Marie is seen on the Dini Petty
Show explaining the Bahá'í teaching of Progressive revelation.
In 1996 she received an honorary Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa degree from the University of Regina
in Regina, Saskatchewan
, Canada. She then gave the convocation address to the administration, education, and engineering graduates. As part of the address, Sainte-Marie sang a song about the Canadian Indian residential school system.
In 2007 she received an honorary Doctor of Letters
from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. On 13 June 2008, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Carleton University
, in Ottawa, Canada, an honorary Doctor of Music from The University of Western Ontario on June 10, 2009, in London, Ontario, and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art & Design
on June 4, 2010, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
) were already in her repertoire.
By 1962, in her early twenties, Sainte-Marie was touring alone, developing her craft and performing in various concert halls, folk music festivals and Native Americans reservations 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 Canadian contemporaries, such as Leonard Cohen
, Joni Mitchell
(including introducing her to manager Eliot Roberts), and Neil Young
.
She quickly earned a reputation as a gifted songwriter, and many of her earliest songs were covered, and often turned into chart-topping hits, by other artists including Chet Atkins
, Janis Joplin
and Taj Mahal
. One of her most popular songs, "Until It's Time for You to Go
", has been recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley
, Barbra Streisand
, Neil Diamond
, Arthur Fiedler
and the Boston Pops Orchestra
, Roberta Flack
, Françoise Hardy
, Cher
, Maureen McGovern
, and Bobby Darin
, while "Piney Wood Hills" was made into a country music hit by Bobby Bare
. Her vocal style features a frequently recurring, insistent, unusually sustained vibrato, one more prominent than can be found in the music of any other well-known popular music performer.
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", later covered by Donovan
, The Charlatans, Quicksilver Messenger Service
, Gram Parsons
as a part of his Another Side of This Life: The Lost Recordings of Gram Parsons 1965-1966, the songwriter Charles Brutus McClay and even - slightly retitled "Codeine" - by the UK based Anglo-Canadian neo garage rock band The Barracudas
on the band's 1981 debut LP "Drop Out with The Barracudas", and more recently by Courtney Love. Also in 1963 Sainte-Marie witnessed wounded soldiers returning from Vietnam at a time when the U.S. government was denying involvement - this inspired her protest song "Universal Soldier
" which was released on her debut album, It's My Way on Vanguard Records
in 1964, and later became a hit for Donovan
. She was subsequently named Billboard Magazine's Best New Artist. Some of her songs such as "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying
" (1964, included on her 1966 album) addressing the plight of the Native American people created a lot of controversy at the time.
In 1967, Sainte-Marie released the album Fire and Fleet and Candlelight, which contained her interpretation of the traditional Yorkshire dialect song "Lyke Wake Dirge". Sainte-Marie's other well-known songs include "Mister Can't You See
," (a Top 40 U.S. hit in 1972); "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo"; and the theme song of the popular movie Soldier Blue
. Perhaps her first appearance on TV was as herself on To Tell the Truth
in January 1966. She also appeared on Pete Seeger
's Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger in 1965 and several Canadian Television productions from the 1960s through to the 1990s, and sang the opening song "The Circle Game" (written by Joni Mitchell
) in Stuart Hagmann's film The Strawberry Statement
(1970).
In the late sixties, Sainte-Marie used a Buchla
synthesizer
to record the album Illuminations, which did not receive much notice. "People were more in love with the Pocahontas
-with-a-guitar image," she commented in a 1998 interview.
In late 1975, Sainte Marie got a phone call from Dulcy Singer
, then Associate Producer of Sesame Street
, to appear on the show. According to Sainte-Marie, Singer wanted her to count and recite the alphabet like everyone else, but instead, she wanted to teach the show's young viewers that "Indians still exist". Sainte-Marie had been invited earlier that year to appear on another children's TV show which she would not name, but turned the invitation down since the program ran commercials for G.I. Joe
war toys.
Sainte-Marie regularly appeared on Sesame Street
over a five year period from 1976–1981, along with her first son, Dakota Starblanket Wolfchild whom she breast fed in one episode. Sesame Street
even aired a week of shows from her home in Hawaii
in December 1977; where Sainte-Marie and her family were joined by Bob (Bob McGrath
), Maria (Sonia Manzano
), Mr. Hooper (Will Lee
), Olivia (Alaina Reed Hall
, who was Sainte-Marie's closest friend from the Sesame Street
cast), Big Bird and Oscar (both portrayed by Carroll Spinney).
In 1979 the film Spirit of the Wind
, featuring Sainte-Marie's original musical score including the song "Spirit of the Wind", was one of three entries that year at Cannes, along with The China Syndrome
and Norma Rae
. The film is a docudrama of George Attla, the 'winningest dog musher of all time,' as the film presents him, with all parts played by Native Americans except one by Slim Pickens
. The film was shown on cable TV in the early 1980s and was released in France in 2003. Sainte-Marie's musical score has been described as 'inspiring', 'haunting', and 'perfection'.
Sainte-Marie began using Apple Inc. Apple II
and Macintosh
computers as early as 1981 to record her music and later some of her visual art. The song "Up Where We Belong
" (which Sainte-Marie co-wrote with Will Jennings
and musician Jack Nitzsche
) was performed by Joe Cocker
and Jennifer Warnes
for the film An Officer and a Gentleman
. It received the Academy Award
for Best Song in 1982. The song was later covered by Cliff Richard
and Anne Murray
on Cliff's album of duets, Two's Company.
In the early 1980s one of her native songs was used as the theme song for the CBC
's native series Spirit Bay. She was cast for the TNT
1993 telefilm The Broken Chain. It was shot entirely in Virginia
. In 1989 she wrote and performed the music for Where the Spirit Lives
, a film about native children being abducted and forced into residential schools.
, telling the Indian side of the Battle of the Little Bighorn
, where Lt. Col. George Custer
was killed.
In 1992, after a sixteen-year recording hiatus, Sainte-Marie released the album Coincidence and Likely Stories
. Recorded in 1990 at home in Hawaii on her computer and transmitted via modem through the early Internet to producer Chris Birkett in London, England, 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 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
.) Also in 1992, Sainte-Marie appeared in the television film The Broken Chain with Pierce Brosnan
along with fellow First Nations Bahá'í Phil Lucas
. Her next album followed up in 1996 with Up Where We Belong, an album on which she re-recorded a number of her greatest hits in more unplugged and acoustic versions, including a re-release of "Universal Soldier
". Sainte-Marie has exhibited her art at the Glenbow Museum
in Calgary
, the Winnipeg Art Gallery
, the Emily Carr
Gallery in Vancouver
and the American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico
.
In 1969 she started a philanthropic non-profit fund Nihewan Foundation for American Indian Education devoted to improving Native American students participation in learning. She 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 2000, Sainte-Marie gave the commencement address at Haskell Indian Nations University
. In 2002 she sang at the Kennedy Space Center
for Commander John Herrington
,USN, a Chickasaw
and the first Native American astronaut. In 2003 she became a spokesperson for the UNESCO
Associated Schools Project Network
in Canada.
In 2004, a track written and performed by Sainte-Marie, entitled "Lazarus", was sampled by Hip Hop
producer Kanye West
and performed by Cam'Ron
and Jim Jones of The Diplomats
. The track is called "Dead or Alive". In June 2007, she made a rare U.S. appearance at the Clearwater Festival
in Croton-on-Hudson, New York
.
In 2008, a two-CD set titled Buffy/Changing Woman/Sweet America: The Mid-1970s Recordings was released, compiling the three studio albums that she recorded for ABC Records
and MCA Records
between 1974 and 1976 (after departing her long-time label Vanguard Records
). This was the first re-release of this material. In September 2008, Sainte-Marie made a comeback onto the music scene in Canada with the release of her latest studio album Running For The Drum
. It was produced by Chris Birkett (producer of her 1992 and 1996 best of albums). Sessions for this latest project commenced in 2006 in Sainte-Marie's home studio in Hawaii and in part in France. They continued until spring 2007.
that she had been blacklisted and that she, along with Native Americans and other native people in the Red Power movements, were put out of business in the 1970s.
"I found out 10 years later, in the 1980s, that President Lyndon B. Johnson
had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music", Sainte-Marie said in a 1999 interview at Diné College
given to Brenda Norrel, a staff writer with Indian Country Today ... "In the 1970s, not only was the protest movement put out of business, but the Native American movement was attacked." According to Norrel, this article was initially censored by Indian Country Today
, and finally published only in part in 2006.
for her 1996 variety special, Up Where We Belong.
In 1983–4, the song "Up Where We Belong
" (music by Jack Nitzsche
and Buffy Sainte-Marie; lyrics by Will Jennings
) from An Officer and a Gentleman
won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Film Award for Best Original Song.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(born February 20, 1941) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
. Her singing and writing repertoire includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism. She recorded one country album, I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again
I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again
I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again was the fifth album by Cree singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. As its title suggested, it saw her, again following Joan Baez, embrace Nashville country music with the help of session veterans such as the Jordanaires, Grady Martin, Roy M. Huskey, Jr. and Floyd...
, in Nashville, and her Academy Award-winning "Up Where We Belong
Up Where We Belong
"Up Where We Belong" is a song from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. Written by Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, with lyrics by Will Jennings, it was performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.-Charts and awards:...
" is considered "pure pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
".
She founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project
Cradleboard Teaching Project
Cradleboard Teaching Project, founded in 1997 by singer/song-writer Buffy Sainte-Marie, has developed a curriculum that aims to raise self-identity and self-esteem in present and future generations of Indian children by introducing them to enriching, accurate information about Native American...
, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding Native Americans. She has won recognition and many awards and honours for both her music and her work in education and social activism.
Personal life
She was born Beverly Sainte-Marie in 1941 on the Piapot CreeCree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
Indian reserve in the Qu'Appelle
Qu'Appelle River
The Qu'Appelle River is a Canadian river that flows 430 km east from Lake Diefenbaker in southwestern Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near the village of St. Lazare....
valley, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was orphaned and later adopted, growing up in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
with parents Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, who were related to her biological parents. She attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
, earning degrees (BA 1963 and PhD 1983) in teaching and Oriental philosophy. and graduating in the top ten of her class.
In 1964 on a return trip to the Piapot Cree reserve in Canada for a Powwow
PowWow
PowWow is a wireless sensor network mote developed by the Cairn team of IRISA/INRIA. The platform is currently based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard radio transceiver and on an MSP430 microprocessor...
she was welcomed and (in a Cree Nation context) adopted by the youngest son of Chief Piapot
Piapot
Piapot, a Chief of First Nations people in southern Saskatchewan in the late 19th century. His name “Payepot” means Hole-in-the-Sioux. He became a well known leader, diplomat, warrior, horse thief, and spiritualist.-Childhood:...
, Imu Piapot and his wife, who added to Sainte-Marie's cultural value of, and place in, native culture.
In 1968 she married surfing teacher Dewain Bugbee of Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
; they divorced in 1971. She married Sheldon Wolfchild from Minnesota in 1975; they have a son, Dakota "Cody" Starblanket Wolfchild. That union also ended and she married, thirdly, to Jack Nitzsche
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche was an arranger, producer, songwriter, and film score composer. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others...
in the early 1980s, but her current partner is Chuck Wilson (since 1993). She currently lives on Kauai
Kauai
Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...
.
She became an active friend of the Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
by the mid-1970s when she is said to have appeared in the 1973 Third National Baha’i Youth Conference at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and has continued to appear at concerts, conferences and conventions of that religion since then. In 1992, she appeared in the musical event prelude to the Bahá'í World Congress
Bahá'í World Congress
The Bahá'í World Congress is a large gathering of Bahá'ís from across the world that is called irregularly by the Universal House of Justice, the governing body of the Bahá'ís...
, a double concert "Live Unity: The Sound of the World" in 1992 with video broadcast and documentary. In the video documentary of the event Sainte-Marie is seen on the Dini Petty
Dini Petty
Dini Petty is a Canadian television and radio host.At 22, wearing a trademark pink jumpsuit and working for Toronto radio station CKEY, she became the first female traffic reporter to pilot her own helicopter...
Show explaining the Bahá'í teaching of Progressive revelation.
In 1996 she received an honorary Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa degree from the University of Regina
University of Regina
The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a junior college in 1925, and was disaffiliated...
in Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox...
, Canada. She then gave the convocation address to the administration, education, and engineering graduates. As part of the address, Sainte-Marie sang a song about the Canadian Indian residential school system.
In 2007 she received an honorary Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Emily Carr University of Art and Design is a public post-secondary University located on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC, Canada...
in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. On 13 June 2008, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Carleton University
Carleton University
Carleton University is a comprehensive university located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The enabling legislation is The Carleton University Act, 1952, S.O. 1952. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines. Carleton has...
, in Ottawa, Canada, an honorary Doctor of Music from The University of Western Ontario on June 10, 2009, in London, Ontario, and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art & Design
Ontario College of Art & Design
OCAD University is Canada's largest and oldest educational institution for art and design. It is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on McCaul Street beside the Art Gallery of Ontario...
on June 4, 2010, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Early career
Sainte-Marie played piano and guitar, self-taught, in her childhood and teen years. In college some of her songs, "Ananias", the Indian lament, "Now That the Buffalo's Gone" and "Mayoo Sto Hoon" (in HindiHindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
) were already in her repertoire.
By 1962, in her early twenties, Sainte-Marie was touring alone, developing her craft and performing in various concert halls, folk music festivals and Native Americans reservations across the United States, Canada and abroad. She spent a considerable amount of time in the coffeehouses of downtown Toronto's old Yorkville
Yorkville, Toronto
Yorkville is a district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, well known for its shopping. It is a former village, annexed by the City of Toronto. It is roughly bounded by Bloor Street to the south, Davenport Road to the north, Yonge Street to the east and Avenue Road to the west, and is considered part of...
district, and New York City's Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
as part of the early to mid-1960s folk scene, often alongside other emerging Canadian contemporaries, such as Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
(including introducing her to manager Eliot Roberts), and Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
.
She quickly earned a reputation as a gifted songwriter, and many of her earliest songs were covered, and often turned into chart-topping hits, by other artists including Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
, Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
and Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
. One of her most popular songs, "Until It's Time for You to Go
Until It's Time for You to Go
"Until It's Time for You to Go" is a song from the 1965 album Many a Mile by Canadian First Nations singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. It was never released by her as a single, but was a UK Top 20 hit for British group The Four Pennies in 1965, and for Elvis Presley in 1972, and a US Hot 100...
", has been recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
and the Boston Pops Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
, Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...
, Françoise Hardy
Françoise Hardy
Françoise Madeleine Hardy is a French singer, actress and astrologer. Hardy is an iconic figure in fashion, music and style. She is married to the singer and movie actor Jacques Dutronc.-Biography:...
, Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
, Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
, and Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
, while "Piney Wood Hills" was made into a country music hit by Bobby Bare
Bobby Bare
Robert Joseph Bare is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is the father of Bobby Bare, Jr., also a musician.-Early career:...
. Her vocal style features a frequently recurring, insistent, unusually sustained vibrato, one more prominent than can be found in the music of any other well-known popular music performer.
In 1963, recovering from a throat infection Sainte-Marie became addicted to codeine
Codeine
Codeine or 3-methylmorphine is an opiate used for its analgesic, antitussive, and antidiarrheal properties...
and recovering from the experience became the basis of her song "Cod'ine", later covered by Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
, The Charlatans, Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...
, Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
as a part of his Another Side of This Life: The Lost Recordings of Gram Parsons 1965-1966, the songwriter Charles Brutus McClay and even - slightly retitled "Codeine" - by the UK based Anglo-Canadian neo garage rock band The Barracudas
The Barracudas
The Barracudas are an English based Anglo-Canadian band formed in the late 1970s.The band's original lineup consisted of: Jeremy Gluck , Robin Wills , Starkie Phillips and Adam Phillips....
on the band's 1981 debut LP "Drop Out with The Barracudas", and more recently by Courtney Love. Also in 1963 Sainte-Marie witnessed wounded soldiers returning from Vietnam at a time when the U.S. government was denying involvement - this inspired her protest song "Universal Soldier
Universal Soldier (song)
"Universal Soldier" is a song written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song was originally released on Sainte-Marie's debut album It's My Way! in 1964. "Universal Soldier" was not a popular hit at the time of its release, but it did garner attention within the...
" which was released on her debut album, It's My Way on Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
in 1964, and later became a hit for Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
. She was subsequently named Billboard Magazine's Best New Artist. Some of her songs such as "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying
Little Wheel Spin and Spin
Little Wheel Spin and Spin was the third album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, released in 1966. Although it became her only album to reach the Billboard Top 100, it failed to provide any notable standards covered by pop artists...
" (1964, included on her 1966 album) addressing the plight of the Native American people created a lot of controversy at the time.
In 1967, Sainte-Marie released the album Fire and Fleet and Candlelight, which contained her interpretation of the traditional Yorkshire dialect song "Lyke Wake Dirge". Sainte-Marie's other well-known songs include "Mister Can't You See
Mister Can't You See
"Mister Can't You See" is a song written by Mickey Newbury and Townes Van Zandt that first appeared on Newbury's 1968 debut album Harlequin Melodies. Newbury's original version was slow and dominated by strings and a very simple drumbeat, with his voice telling a tale of nature's power and beauty...
," (a Top 40 U.S. hit in 1972); "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo"; and the theme song of the popular movie Soldier Blue
Soldier Blue
Soldier Blue is a 1970 American Revisionist Western movie directed by Ralph Nelson and inspired by events of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in the Colorado Territory....
. Perhaps her first appearance on TV was as herself on To Tell the Truth
To Tell the Truth
To Tell the Truth is an American television panel game show created by Bob Stewart and produced by Goodson-Todman Productions that has aired in various forms since 1956 both on networks and in syndication...
in January 1966. She also appeared on Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
's Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger in 1965 and several Canadian Television productions from the 1960s through to the 1990s, and sang the opening song "The Circle Game" (written by Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
) in Stuart Hagmann's film The Strawberry Statement
The Strawberry Statement
The Strawberry Statement is a non-fiction book by James Simon Kunen, written when he was 19, which chronicled his experiences at Columbia University from 1966–1968, particularly the April 1968 protests and takeover of the office of the dean of Columbia by student protesters.-Explanation of...
(1970).
In the late sixties, Sainte-Marie used a Buchla
Buchla
Buchla & Associates, Inc. is a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, notably synthesizers and unique MIDI controllers. The 200e Electric Music Box and Lightning III are currently in production.-Buchla Music Box :...
synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
to record the album Illuminations, which did not receive much notice. "People were more in love with the Pocahontas
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...
-with-a-guitar image," she commented in a 1998 interview.
In late 1975, Sainte Marie got a phone call from Dulcy Singer
Dulcy Singer
Dulcy Singer served as an American television producer for Christmas Eve on Sesame Street in 1978 and as executive producer for Sesame Street from 1982-1995.She received her B.A...
, then Associate Producer of Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
, to appear on the show. According to Sainte-Marie, Singer wanted her to count and recite the alphabet like everyone else, but instead, she wanted to teach the show's young viewers that "Indians still exist". Sainte-Marie had been invited earlier that year to appear on another children's TV show which she would not name, but turned the invitation down since the program ran commercials for G.I. Joe
G.I. Joe
G.I. Joe is a line of action figures produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier , Action Sailor , Action Pilot , Action Marine and later on, the Action Nurse...
war toys.
Sainte-Marie regularly appeared on Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
over a five year period from 1976–1981, along with her first son, Dakota Starblanket Wolfchild whom she breast fed in one episode. Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
even aired a week of shows from her home in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in December 1977; where Sainte-Marie and her family were joined by Bob (Bob McGrath
Bob McGrath
Robert Emmet "Bob" McGrath is an American singer and actor best known for playing the human character Bob on Sesame Street. He was born in Ottawa, Illinois. McGrath was named for Irish patriot Robert Emmet....
), Maria (Sonia Manzano
Sonia Manzano
Sonia Manzano is an American actress and writer. She is best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street since 1971. She also licenses her image to promote items of baby clothes and plates in Hispanic America....
), Mr. Hooper (Will Lee
Will Lee
Will Lee was an American actor best known for playing the store proprietor Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street, from the show's debut in 1969 until his death in 1982.-Early career:...
), Olivia (Alaina Reed Hall
Alaina Reed Hall
Alaina Reed Hall was an American actress best known for her roles as Olivia, Gordon's younger sister, on the long-running children's television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.-Early life and career:Born Bernice Ruth Reed in Springfield, Ohio, she began her career...
, who was Sainte-Marie's closest friend from the Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
cast), Big Bird and Oscar (both portrayed by Carroll Spinney).
In 1979 the film Spirit of the Wind
Spirit of the Wind
Spirit of the Wind is a 1979 American film directed by Ralph Liddle.The film is also known as Attla .- Plot summary :...
, featuring Sainte-Marie's original musical score including the song "Spirit of the Wind", was one of three entries that year at Cannes, along with The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome is a 1979 American thriller film that tells the story of a reporter and cameraman who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. It stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Richard Herd, and Wilford Brimley.The film was...
and Norma Rae
Norma Rae
Norma Rae is a 1979 American drama film that tells the story of a factory worker from a small town in North Carolina, who becomes involved in the labor union activities at the textile factory where she works...
. The film is a docudrama of George Attla, the 'winningest dog musher of all time,' as the film presents him, with all parts played by Native Americans except one by Slim Pickens
Slim Pickens
Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. , better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr...
. The film was shown on cable TV in the early 1980s and was released in France in 2003. Sainte-Marie's musical score has been described as 'inspiring', 'haunting', and 'perfection'.
Sainte-Marie began using Apple Inc. Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
and Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computers as early as 1981 to record her music and later some of her visual art. The song "Up Where We Belong
Up Where We Belong
"Up Where We Belong" is a song from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. Written by Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, with lyrics by Will Jennings, it was performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.-Charts and awards:...
" (which Sainte-Marie co-wrote with Will Jennings
Will Jennings
Wilbur H. "Will" Jennings is an American songwriter who is popularly known for writing the lyrics for "My Heart Will Go On", the theme for the film Titanic .-Life and education:...
and musician Jack Nitzsche
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche was an arranger, producer, songwriter, and film score composer. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others...
) was performed by Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
and Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Jean Warnes is an American singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer. She is known for her interpretations of compositions written by herself and many others, as well as an extensive playlist as a vocalist on movie soundtracks.Between 1979 and 1987 Warnes surpassed Frank Sinatra as...
for the film An Officer and a Gentleman
An Officer and a Gentleman
A Officer and a Gentleman is a 1982 American drama film that tells the story of a U.S. Navy aviation officer candidate who comes into conflict with the Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant who trains him. It was written by Douglas Day Stewart and directed by Taylor Hackford...
. It received the Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Song in 1982. The song was later covered by Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
and Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
on Cliff's album of duets, Two's Company.
In the early 1980s one of her native songs was used as the theme song for the CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
's native series Spirit Bay. She was cast for the TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
1993 telefilm The Broken Chain. It was shot entirely in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. In 1989 she wrote and performed the music for Where the Spirit Lives
Where the Spirit Lives
Where the Spirit Lives is a drama film about Aboriginal children in Canada being taken from their tribes to attend residential schools for assimilation into majority culture. Written by Keith Ross Leckie and directed by Bruce Pittman, it aired on CBC Television in 1989.The film starred Michelle St...
, a film about native children being abducted and forced into residential schools.
Later career
Sainte-Marie voiced the Cheyenne character, Kate Bighead, in the 1991 made-for-TV movie Son of the Morning StarSon of the Morning Star
Son of the Morning Star is a 1984 non-fiction book on the subject of George Armstrong Custer, with the subtitle 'Custer and the Little Bighorn'. A 1991 television film was based on the book. Both the book and the film chronicle the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the personalities involved, and the...
, telling the Indian side of the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
, where Lt. Col. George Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
was killed.
In 1992, after a sixteen-year recording hiatus, Sainte-Marie released the album Coincidence and Likely Stories
Coincidence and Likely Stories
Coincidence and Likely Stories was the thirteenth studio album by Buffy Sainte-Marie but her first for sixteen years, during which time she had been raising her son and working on the children's television show Sesame Street...
. Recorded in 1990 at home in Hawaii on her computer and transmitted via modem through the early Internet to producer Chris Birkett in London, England, the album included the politically-charged songs "The Big Ones Get Away" and "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" (which mentions Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement . In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine...
), both commenting on the ongoing plight of Native Americans (see also the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by American writer Dee Brown is a history of Native Americans in the American West in the late nineteenth century. He describes the people's displacement through forced relocations and years of warfare waged by the United States federal government...
.) Also in 1992, Sainte-Marie appeared in the television film The Broken Chain with Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
along with fellow First Nations Bahá'í Phil Lucas
Phil Lucas
Phil Lucas was an American filmmaker of mostly Native American themes. He acted, wrote, produced, directed or edited more than 100 films/documentaries or television programs starting as early as 1979 when he wrote/co-produced and co-directed Images of Indians for PBS - a five-part series exploring...
. Her next album followed up in 1996 with Up Where We Belong, an album on which she re-recorded a number of her greatest hits in more unplugged and acoustic versions, including a re-release of "Universal Soldier
Universal Soldier (song)
"Universal Soldier" is a song written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song was originally released on Sainte-Marie's debut album It's My Way! in 1964. "Universal Soldier" was not a popular hit at the time of its release, but it did garner attention within the...
". Sainte-Marie has exhibited her art at the Glenbow Museum
Glenbow Museum
The Glenbow Museum in Calgary is one of Western Canada's largest museums, with over 93,000 square feet of exhibition space in more than 20 galleries, showcasing a selection of the Glenbow's collection of over a million objects....
in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, the Winnipeg Art Gallery
Winnipeg Art Gallery
The Winnipeg Art Gallery is a public art gallery that was founded in 1912. It is Western Canada's oldest civic gallery and the 6th largest in the country...
, the Emily Carr
Emily Carr
Emily Carr was a Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life...
Gallery in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and the American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
.
In 1969 she started a philanthropic non-profit fund Nihewan Foundation for American Indian Education devoted to improving Native American students participation in learning. She founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project
Cradleboard Teaching Project
Cradleboard Teaching Project, founded in 1997 by singer/song-writer Buffy Sainte-Marie, has developed a curriculum that aims to raise self-identity and self-esteem in present and future generations of Indian children by introducing them to enriching, accurate information about Native American...
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
Battle Creek, Michigan
Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek Rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area , which encompasses all of Calhoun county...
. With projects across Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
, Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
, Ojibwe, Menominee
Menominee
Some placenames use other spellings, see also Menomonee and Menomonie.The Menominee are a nation of Native Americans living in Wisconsin. The Menominee, along with the Ho-Chunk, are the only tribes that are indigenous to what is now Wisconsin...
, Coeur D'Alene
Coeur d'Alene Tribe
The Coeur d'Alene are a Native American people who lived in villages along the Coeur d'Alene, St. Joe, Clark Fork and Spokane Rivers; as well as sites on the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene, Lake Pend Oreille and Hayden Lake, in what is now northern Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana.In...
, Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
, Quinault
Quinault (tribe)
The Quinault are a group of Native American peoples from western Washington in the United States.-Lands:The Quinault Indian Reservation, at , is located on the Pacific coast of Washington, primarily in northwestern Grays Harbor County, with small parts extending north into southwestern Jefferson...
, Hawaiian
Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...
, and Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
communities in eleven states, partnered with a non-native class of the same grade level for Elementary
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
, Middle
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
, and High School
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
grades in the disciplines of Geography, History, Social Studies, Music and Science and produced a multimedia curriculum CD, Science: Through Native American Eyes.
In 2000, Sainte-Marie gave the commencement address at Haskell Indian Nations University
Haskell Indian Nations University
Haskell Indian Nations University is a tribal university located in Lawrence, Kansas, for members of federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States...
. In 2002 she sang at the Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
for Commander John Herrington
John Herrington
John Bennett Herrington is an American business executive, former US Navy officer and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of one Space Shuttle mission. He is the first enrolled member of a Native American tribe to fly in space....
,USN, a Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
and the first Native American astronaut. In 2003 she became a spokesperson for the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Associated Schools Project Network
UNESCO ASPNet
The UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network, or ASPNet for short, is a programme established in 1953 to encourage schools worldwide to educate students on issues related to UNESCO's "overarching goal of promoting peace and international understanding". , it includes nearly eight thousand...
in Canada.
In 2004, a track written and performed by Sainte-Marie, entitled "Lazarus", was sampled by Hip Hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
producer Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
and performed by Cam'Ron
Cam'ron
Cameron Giles , better known by his stage name Cam'ron or "Killa Cam", is a Grammy-nominated American actor. He is the founder of the hip-hop group The Diplomats , and also of The U.N. group....
and Jim Jones of The Diplomats
The Diplomats
The Diplomats, also popularly known as Dipset, are a Harlem-based hip hop group founded by Cam'ron and Jim Jones in 1997. The original members of the group were Cam'ron, Freekey Zekey, and Jim Jones ; who all grew up together in Harlem...
. The track is called "Dead or Alive". In June 2007, she made a rare U.S. appearance at the Clearwater Festival
Clearwater Festival
The Clearwater Festival is a music and environmental summer festival and America’s oldest and largest annual festival of its kind. This unique event has hosted over 15,000 people on a weekend in June for more than three decades...
in Croton-on-Hudson, New York
Croton-on-Hudson, New York
Croton-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 8,070 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Cortlandt, in New York City's northern suburbs...
.
In 2008, a two-CD set titled Buffy/Changing Woman/Sweet America: The Mid-1970s Recordings was released, compiling the three studio albums that she recorded for ABC Records
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
and MCA Records
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
between 1974 and 1976 (after departing her long-time label Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
). This was the first re-release of this material. In September 2008, Sainte-Marie made a comeback onto the music scene in Canada with the release of her latest studio album Running For The Drum
Running For The Drum
Running For The Drum is the fifteenth studio album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, released in 2008. One of Sainte-Marie's more successful albums, it went to number one in the Canadian charts and spawned one single with No No Keshagesh...
. It was produced by Chris Birkett (producer of her 1992 and 1996 best of albums). Sessions for this latest project commenced in 2006 in Sainte-Marie's home studio in Hawaii and in part in France. They continued until spring 2007.
Censorship
Sainte-Marie claimed in a 2008 interview at the National Museum of the American IndianNational Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
that she had been blacklisted and that she, along with Native Americans and other native people in the Red Power movements, were put out of business in the 1970s.
"I found out 10 years later, in the 1980s, that President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music", Sainte-Marie said in a 1999 interview at Diné College
Diné College
Diné College is a two-year, tribally controlled community college, serving the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Indian Reservation, which spans the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah....
given to Brenda Norrel, a staff writer with Indian Country Today ... "In the 1970s, not only was the protest movement put out of business, but the Native American movement was attacked." According to Norrel, this article was initially censored by Indian Country Today
Indian Country Today
Indian Country Today Media Network is a weekly U.S. newsmagazine that is the primary national news source for Natives, American Indians, and Tribes in the U.S. and Alaska. The ICT Media Network revealed their new online multi-media news platform in January 2011; it is a daily, hourly, or "as news...
, and finally published only in part in 2006.
Awards and honors
In 1997, Sainte-Marie won a Gemini AwardGemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
for her 1996 variety special, Up Where We Belong.
In 1983–4, the song "Up Where We Belong
Up Where We Belong
"Up Where We Belong" is a song from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. Written by Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, with lyrics by Will Jennings, it was performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.-Charts and awards:...
" (music by Jack Nitzsche
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche was an arranger, producer, songwriter, and film score composer. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others...
and Buffy Sainte-Marie; lyrics by Will Jennings
Will Jennings
Wilbur H. "Will" Jennings is an American songwriter who is popularly known for writing the lyrics for "My Heart Will Go On", the theme for the film Titanic .-Life and education:...
) from An Officer and a Gentleman
An Officer and a Gentleman
A Officer and a Gentleman is a 1982 American drama film that tells the story of a U.S. Navy aviation officer candidate who comes into conflict with the Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant who trains him. It was written by Douglas Day Stewart and directed by Taylor Hackford...
won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Film Award for Best Original Song.
Albums
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN | US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
||
| 1964 | It's My Way! It's My Way! It’s My Way is first album by folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie. It is most famous for two widely-covered folk standards, "Universal Soldier" and "Cod'ine", as well as "Now That the Buffalo's Gone", a lament about the continued confiscation of Indian lands, as evidenced by the building of the Kinzua... |
— | — | — |
| 1965 | Many a Mile Many a Mile Many a Mile is Buffy Sainte-Marie's second album, released in 1965.Though originally released on Vanguard Records, it was never reissued on CD when the rest of Sainte-Marie's catalog for that label came out in the late 1990s... |
— | — | — |
| 1966 | Little Wheel Spin and Spin Little Wheel Spin and Spin Little Wheel Spin and Spin was the third album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, released in 1966. Although it became her only album to reach the Billboard Top 100, it failed to provide any notable standards covered by pop artists... |
— | 97 | — |
| 1967 | Fire & Fleet & Candlelight Fire & Fleet & Candlelight Fire & Fleet & Candlelight was the fourth album by Cree singer and songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie.More than its predecessor Little Wheel Spin and Spin, it marked a significant departure from the simple folk songs of her first two albums... |
— | 126 | — |
| 1968 | I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again was the fifth album by Cree singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. As its title suggested, it saw her, again following Joan Baez, embrace Nashville country music with the help of session veterans such as the Jordanaires, Grady Martin, Roy M. Huskey, Jr. and Floyd... |
— | 171 | — |
| 1969 | Illuminations Illuminations (Buffy Sainte-Marie album) Illuminations, released in 1969, was the sixth album by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Though most of the tracks did away with the backing she had used on her previous two albums, Illuminations had a completely different sound from anything she had previously done... |
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| 1970 | Performance (film soundtrack) Performance (soundtrack) Performance is a 1970 soundtrack album to the film Performance by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg. It features music from Randy Newman, Merry Clayton, Ry Cooder, Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie, The Last Poets and Mick Jagger.... |
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| The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie is a compilation album taken from her first six albums with Vanguard Records. Originally issued as a double-LP set after the financial disaster of Illuminations, the album contains material from all her previous albums but curiously not one track unavailable elsewhere... |
— | 142 | — | |
| 1971 | The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie Vol. 2 The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie Vol. 2 The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie Vol. 2 was a compilation double album released by Vanguard Records in 1971 covering a large proportion of the material she had released on her first six albums for the label that was not found on the previous year's The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie.Unlike her other... |
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| She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina was the seventh album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, released in 1971.Her previous album Illuminations having sold so poorly as to lose Vanguard a considerable sum of money, the label placed considerable pressure on Sainte-Marie to come up with something that would sell in... |
— | 182 | — | |
| 1972 | Moonshot Moonshot (album) Moonshot, released in 1972, was the eighth album by Buffy Sainte-Marie and her penultimate album for Vanguard Records.After the very modest success of her previous album She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina, Vanguard again teamed Sainte-Marie with renowned pop session musicians in its effort to improve... |
— | 134 | — |
| 1973 | Quiet Places Quiet Places Quiet Places was Buffy Sainte-Marie's ninth album and her last for Vanguard Records, with whom she had had a very strained relationship ever since the financial disaster of the experimental Illuminations... |
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| 1974 | Native North American Child: An Odyssey Native North American Child: An Odyssey Native North American Child: An Odyssey was a 1974 compilation album released after Buffy Sainte-Marie's departure from Vanguard Records.The compilation runs through the native theme in Sainte-Marie's writing, seen clearly in such songs as "Now That the Buffalo's Gone", "He's an Indian Cowboy in... |
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| Buffy Buffy (album) Buffy was the tenth album by Buffy Sainte-Marie and her first after leaving Vanguard Records, with whom her relationship had been strained for several albums.... |
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| 1975 | Changing Woman Changing Woman Changing Woman was Buffy Sainte-Marie's eleventh studio album and her second and last for MCA Records.Whereas her other MCA album, Buffy had been a continuation of the style of her last Vanguard albums, She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina, Moonshot and Quiet Places, Changing Woman was a return to... |
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| 1976 | Sweet America Sweet America Sweet America was the twelfth studio album by Buffy Sainte-Marie and her last before retiring from music to work on Sesame Street and in education... |
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| 1992 | Coincidence and Likely Stories Coincidence and Likely Stories Coincidence and Likely Stories was the thirteenth studio album by Buffy Sainte-Marie but her first for sixteen years, during which time she had been raising her son and working on the children's television show Sesame Street... |
63 | — | 39 |
| 1996 | Up Where We Belong | — | — | — |
| 1998 | Singing Siam | — | — | — |
| 1999 | Cry With the eagle | — | — | — |
| 2001 | Canada oh Canada | — | — | — |
| 2003 | The Best of the Vanguard Years | — | — | — |
| 2008 | Buffy/Changing Woman/Sweet America | — | — | — |
| Running For The Drum Running For The Drum Running For The Drum is the fifteenth studio album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, released in 2008. One of Sainte-Marie's more successful albums, it went to number one in the Canadian charts and spawned one single with No No Keshagesh... |
1 | — | — | |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN | CAN AC | US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
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| 1970 | "Circle Game" | 76 | — | 109 | — | Fire & Fleet & Candlelight |
| 1971 | "Soldier Blue" | — | — | — | 7 | She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina |
| "I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again" | 86 | — | 98 | 34 | I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again | |
| 1972 | "Mister Can't You See Mister Can't You See "Mister Can't You See" is a song written by Mickey Newbury and Townes Van Zandt that first appeared on Newbury's 1968 debut album Harlequin Melodies. Newbury's original version was slow and dominated by strings and a very simple drumbeat, with his voice telling a tale of nature's power and beauty... " |
21 | — | 38 | — | Moonshot |
| "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo" | — | — | 98 | — | ||
| 1974 | "Waves" | — | 27 | — | — | Buffy |
| 1992 | "The Big Ones Get Away" | 24 | 14 | — | 39 | Coincidence & Likely Stories |
| "Fallen Angels" | 50 | 26 | — | 57 | ||
| 1996 | "Until It's Time for You to Go Until It's Time for You to Go "Until It's Time for You to Go" is a song from the 1965 album Many a Mile by Canadian First Nations singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. It was never released by her as a single, but was a UK Top 20 hit for British group The Four Pennies in 1965, and for Elvis Presley in 1972, and a US Hot 100... " |
— | 54 | — | — | Up Where We Belong |
See also
- Canadian Music Hall of FameCanadian Music Hall of FameThe Canadian Music Hall of Fame honors Canadian musicians for their lifetime achievements in music. The ceremony is held each year as part of the Juno Award ceremonies. Members of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame represent many of the world's great talents...
- First Nations musicFirst Nations musicAboriginal music of Canada encompasses a wide variety of musical genres created by Canada's Aboriginal people. Before European settlers came to what is now Canada, the region was occupied by a large number of aboriginal peoples, including the West Coast Salish and Haida, the centrally located...
- Music of CanadaMusic of CanadaThe music of Canada has influences that have shaped the country. Aboriginals, the British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has subsequently been heavily influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between...
- Bahá'í Faith and Native AmericansBahá'í Faith and Native AmericansThe Bahá'í Faith and Native Americans has a history reaching back to the lifetime of `Abdu'l-Bahá and has multiplied its relationships across the Americas...
External links
- http://www.buffysaintemarie.co.uk
- Buffy Sainte-Marie's Cradleboard Teaching Project
- Buffy Sainte Marie, Heyoka Magazine Paintings
- Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life, documentary produced by CineFocus-Paquin Pictures
- Legendary Native American Singer-Songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie - video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...