This is not the first case of ethnic imposture, but it is undoubtedly the most disturbing.
It’s hard to imagine a more significant indigenous figure in North American popular culture than Buffy Sainte-Marie.
In her early twenties, she emerged from the cafes of Greenwich Village in the wave of “folk singers” and “committed song”, with Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, etc. Many of the biggest names in American music have paid tribute to him over the years. Joni Mitchell said how much this singer-songwriter had an impact on her.
We can no longer count the tributes that have been paid to her (Juno awards, an Oscar as co-author ofUp Where We Belong, the Order of Canada). Last year, PBS dedicated a moving documentary to him in its American Masters series. In addition to the celebration of her illustrious musical career, we could see how much she espoused the cause of the First Nations, in the United States as well as in Canada, from the 1960s. In her songs as in her actions.
But now the investigative show The Fifth Estate from CBC tells us that she is a “pretendian”, as those who usurp their Aboriginal identity to advance their careers are called.
Buffy Sainte-Marie still sang with so much conviction…
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee Deep in the Earth Cover me with pretty lies Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
They tell ya “Ayy, honey, you can still be an Indian Dd-down at the Y on Saturday nights”, no
She was “ordinarily” born into a very white family, to a father of Italian origin and an Anglo-American mother.
She never hid being the daughter of Albert and Winifred Santamaria – who changed their name to Sainte-Marie with the Second World War. Nor having been raised in the very Christian town of Wakefield, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. But early in her career, she claimed to have been born on an Indian reserve in Canada and to have been adopted by the Sainte-Maries.
CBC found the original of his birth certificate in a small town in Massachusetts. She was born on February 20, 1941 in this American state. This is “100%” certain, according to the clerk. As for the possibility of a forgery to disguise an adoption, that doesn’t hold water either. Not to mention the fact that a DNA test done by her son and another close relative indicates that she has no different profile from the rest of her “white” American family.
Sainte-Marie responded in a video that she had always said she did not know the details of his birth. And “with love”, she adds “I know who I am, who I love and who loves me”.
Newspaper clippings from the 1960s tell a different story. In an interview, she said she was born into an “Algonquin” family. In another interview, she was of “Mi’kmaq” origin. And finally, she calls herself “cree” since she participated in a Powwow in Saskatchewan with the Piapots. She started saying that her birth records might have been destroyed, or lost, but the Piapots nevertheless recognized her as one of their own, and she was “adopted.”
In his family, as much as they were proud of his dazzling success, some were upset when hearing this story of adoption and indigenous roots. As early as 1964, his uncle went to the local newspaper to deny this fable – he was quoted at length in an article published at the time.
Then, in 1975, it was his older brother who wrote to a newspaper to set the record straight. He received a formal notice from a law firm and a handwritten letter from his sister. She told him to stop spreading this lie…and threatened to “reveal” that he had sexually abused her throughout her childhood. The man’s daughter (Sainte-Marie’s niece) revealed this letter to CBC. Still, everyone in the family understood that the media version should not be questioned too much.
The shock is immense. Over the years, Sainte-Marie has acquired an almost mythical status in both the United States and Canada. She created vocations. His work is studied and taught. He was awarded honorary doctorates, etc.
What does all this mean now? What meaning does his work, his commitment, take? A real commitment, as his songs are true and vibrant.
If we learned that Gilles Vigneault is in reality a Moldovan who invented a bogus story in Natashquan, would that make his songs worthless?
The example is poorly chosen. And that’s not really the question. The question is the very glaring one of the appropriation of indigenous identity for the purposes of career advancement. Journalist Geoff Leo, who is the author of this report, has unmasked several “pretenderians” in recent years. And those who are the most intransigent with these identity thefts are natives.
Are there so many people who claim to be members of the First Nations without actually being so? Enough for the University of Saskatchewan to commission a report from Métis lawyer Jean Teillet last year.
For many years, academia naively relied on self-declaration of identity by job applicants. Because being indigenous gives access to positions, research grants, etc. We relied on good faith… until we discovered that several had invented a life story.
It is nothing more and nothing less than “ethnic fraud”, writes Jean Teillet. But who will dare to question a person’s identity? Some have had prestigious careers and have done enormously to advance indigenous knowledge and rights. Fake natives can do real work.
One of the reasons for complacency in the face of self-declaration is the fact that academia prides itself on its openness, and boasts of the indigenous presence on its campus, at the highest level. Canadians in general, explains Teillet, have a better conscience seeing that indigenous people have a remarkable career: yes, there have been wrongs… but there is So-and-so! We’re not that bad…
This is the height of colonialism, in the end: a non-native person passes himself off as an “Indian” within the meaning of the law to obtain advantages… granted to repair the wrongs of the past.
It is striking in reading this report to see how there is a sort of corresponding pattern between the story of Sainte-Marie and other cases of usurpation. Versions that change. “Lost” certificates. Adoption as an adult by a nation (to give retroactive authenticity). The uncertainties. Then, the “trauma marketing” of being Indigenous.
Yes, but Buffy Sainte-Marie has Really sang, sang Really took a stand, at a time when the indigenous cause was not at the forefront as it is today. She has Really been an activist, who said Love junkies wanna change the world and it was true…
Without doubt, his talent and his work are authentic. But we can think that she would not have had this success, in any case this attention, without her invented story.
And what they will tell you about all pretendian cases, talented or untalented, is that while they have the microphone, they prevent anyone else from holding it. To tell his true story.