Photo: Buffy Sainte-Marie | By Karen Bliss, Variety | Oscar-winning songwriter and Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Buffy Sainte-Marie, known for the anti-war song “Universal Soldier” and stolen-land lament “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone,” has had her prestigious Order of Canada appointment terminated. The award is the country’s highest honor presented to a civilian.
“Notice is hereby given that the appointment of Buffy Sainte-Marie to the Order of Canada was terminated by Ordinance signed by the Governor General [Mary Simon] on January 3, 2025.” The notice was given by Ken MacKillop, Secretary General of the Order of Canada.
The news was first reported in the Toronto Star late Friday and was included in Saturday’s edition of Canada Gazette, the Canadian government’s official publication.
No specific reason for the termination was stated, but an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Fifth Estate” show, published on Oct. 27, 2023 and now viewed on YouTube 1.5 million times, alleges that Sainte-Marie fabricated her Indigeneity, and presented a birth certificate shown on camera listing Boston, Mass. as her place of birth, “color of race” as “white,” and birth name as Beverly Jean Santamaria.
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Saint-Marie, who turns 84 on Feb. 20, has spent six decades as a musician and activist, releasing 16 studio albums whose songs often address war and Indigenous rights. Her latest was 2017’s “Medicine Songs,” containing new and re-recordings of older material.
Biographical information supplied by her team over the years states that she was born on the Piapot Cree First Nations Reserve in Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan. Her 2018 authorized biography also states she was likely born Cree, while her web site once said that she is “believed to have been born in 1941 on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan and taken from her biological parents when she was an infant.”
Piapot First Nation acting Chief Ira Lavallee asked her to take a DNA test in 2023. “I do believe that we deserve a definitive answer from her,” he told the Canadian Press, although no results have been publicized.
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Read more here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/singer-activist-buffy-sainte-marie-172606961.html
Photo: Buffy St. Marie | https://www.facebook.com/buffy.wolfchild/photos