{"id":33175,"date":"2023-10-25T15:59:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T19:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=33175"},"modified":"2023-10-27T08:52:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T12:52:57","slug":"canadian-documentary-focuses-on-icon-who-based-career-on-native-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2023\/10\/25\/canadian-documentary-focuses-on-icon-who-based-career-on-native-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian documentary focuses on ‘Icon’ who based career on Native identity"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Buffy<\/a>
Buffy Sainte-Marie, born Beverly Jean Santamaria. Photo: Festival of Friends<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Canadian documentary focuses on ‘Icon’ who based career on Native identity<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, October 25, 2023<\/div>\r\n
By Acee Agoyo<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nA Canadian news documentary airing at the end of the week focuses on the Native identity claims of one of the most celebrated performers in entertainment history.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nTitled “Making an Icon,” the description for the upcoming episode of The Fifth Estate<\/em> on CBC News<\/a> does not mention the name of the subject. But multiple Native people who took part in the documentary process told Indianz.Com that it’s about Buffy Sainte-Marie<\/a>, whose decades-long career in music, television and education rests on her claim of being Cree from the Piapot Cree Nation<\/a>, one of the First Nations<\/a> in the province of Saskatchewan.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“An icon’s claims to Indigenous ancestry are being called into question by family members and an investigation that included genealogical documentation, historical research and personal accounts,” the description for the October 27 episode reads.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe documentary comes at a defining time for a performer whose life has been filled with groundbreaking moments. On August 3, Sainte-Marie, who turned 82 earlier this year, surprised her followers by declaring her “retirement from live performance. The announcement cited<\/a> “travel-induced health concerns and performance-inhibiting physical challenges” facing the aging musician.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cI have made the difficult decision to pull out of all scheduled performances in the foreseeable future,” Sainte-Marie said as part of the announcement, which resulted in the cancellation of a slew of previously scheduled shows. \r\n

<\/p>\r\n “Arthritic hands and a recent shoulder injury have made it no longer possible to perform to my standards,” added Sainte-Marie, whose storied legacy includes winning an Academy Award<\/a> for the \u201cUp Where We Belong<\/a>\u201d song from the film \u201cAn Officer and a Gentleman<\/a>.\u201d \r\n

<\/p>\r\n “Sincere regrets to all my fans and family, my band and the support teams that make it all possible,\u201d Sainte-Marie concluded.\r\n

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<\/P>\r\nBut the Native people who participated in CBC’s documentary process believe Sainte-Marie’s decision to step away from the spotlight is directly connected to the questions about her First Nations identity. According to the sources, work on the hour-long episode began more than a year ago and it grew to include interviews with individuals in the United States, where the performer was raised following claims to have been born in Canada and adopted out of Piapot.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nDue to the lengthy production time associated with the CBC project, Sainte-Marie would have been well aware of the nature of the documentary — especially of its potential to unravel a career that began in the 1960s, the people said. The award-winning singer and songwriter has largely remained silent about her retirement decision, with no significant interviews appearing in mainstream media since her announcement more than two months ago.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nBut on October 14, Sainte-Marie appeared on a podcast<\/a> in which she undermined her own long-running claims about her Native heritage. In an interview with Terry David Mulligan<\/a>, a Canadian actor and radio and television personality who described the singer as one of his “good friends,” she said she wasn’t adopted out of the Piapot Cree Nation as she has often asserted.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“I’m always trying to clarify the urban legend stories because some of them are just not true and others are confusing,” Sainte-Marie said on the podcast, seemingly indicating that it’s the public that has not understood her Native claims.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n “I think there’s been confusion regarding my Piapot adoption, for instance,” Sainte-Marie said of her connection to an elderly Cree couple that welcomed her into their family after she rose to prominence as a folk singer. “I was adopted into<\/em> the Piapot family — not I was adopted out<\/em> of Piapot Reserve.”\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“And that makes a big difference,” she said. \r\n

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The first Podcast guest is\u00a0Buffy Sainte Marie.Buffy has announced after a glorious 60-year career, she\u2019s not touring anymore and her documentary Carry it on\u00a0…<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Terry David Mulligan: EP 277 | Buffy Sainte-Marie & Tom Wilson<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAccording to Sainte-Marie, the media projects in which she willingly participated have not told the whole story about her past either. On the podcast, she said even the recent Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On<\/em> documentary<\/a>, which is up for an International Emmy<\/a> award, omits key information despite being promoted as an “in-depth look<\/a>” at her life.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“We had to leave so much out,” Sainte-Marie said of the 2022 project — except for “one terrible incident” that took place during her childhood.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“You don’t really get a picture of who I was because I didn’t really have any identity,” Sainte-Marie said on the podcast. “I didn’t know whether I was Indigenous or not, or mixed or I was adopted.”\r\n

<\/P>\r\nStill, the lack of clarity about Sainte-Marie’s upbringing can be traced to her own words. In her first biography, published in 2012 and written by a Native author, she claims not to know whether she was born in Canada or the U.S.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“I may have been born in Saskatchewan to parents I never knew,” she told author Blair Stonechild<\/a> in Buffy Sainte-Marie: It’s My Way<\/em><\/a>. “I was told I was adopted and I didn’t like it and I always felt insecure as a kid.”\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“I may have been orphaned or maybe not but I was brought up by a family who are part Micmac and part non-Indian in Massachusetts and in Maine,” Sainte-Marie continued, referring to the Mi’kmaq people<\/a> whose present-day tribes are located in Maine in the U.S. and in the Atlantic provinces in Canada.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n Her “authorized” biography, this one penned by a non-Native and published in 2018, doubles down on the vague origin story. The book says Sainte-Marie was “probably” born on the Piapot Reserve in Saskatchewan, “most likely” in 1941 and “on or around” February 20 of that year.\r\n

<\/P> \r\n“There’s no official record of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s birth, not really, at least not a satisfactory and decisive one,” author Andrea Warner<\/a> — who also served as co-writer and associate producer of last year’s documentary, states in the first sentence of the opening chapter of Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography<\/em><\/a>.\r\n

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