Controversy over the ancestry of Buffy Saint-Marie

[bcla]

She's claimed to be adopted but born as a Métis in Canada and adopted by an American family, but for decades there have been claims that she was actually born in Massachusetts to the parents who she claimed to be her adoptive parents.

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/buffy-sainte-marie​

He said the family believed her claim to Indigenous ancestry was some sort of publicity stunt.​

​

Whispers began to swirl that Sainte-Marie had threatened family members, including her own brother, with legal action or worse if they publicly questioned her ancestry claims.​

​

“I remember those stories growing up … ‘Don’t talk about it. We don’t want any trouble…. Let her do what she wants to do because we don’t want to lose our house. We don’t want lawyers coming and suing us for defamation,’” Santamaria said.​

A CBC reporter obtained a certified copy of what was believed to be her birth certificate. Apparently these are full public records in Massachussets.

https://ew.com/buffy-sainte-marie-responds-cbc-ancestry-investigation-fabrications-8406420

 

[LuvOrlando]

I don't know who this person is but it keeps happening & WTH is wrong with people trying to steal the cultural identity of others? It is just so deeply offensive because it is so dehumanizing. A person can have a meaningful story without taking from another human experience, just so shallow.

I would love an "Own your OWN story," movement...sigh.

 

[bcla]

The closest comp might be Iron Eyes Cody, aka Espera Oscar de Corti.

Buffy Saint-Marie was a singer-songwriter with a few well known songs she wrote, like “Up Where We Belong” which got her an Oscar as it was written for “An Officer and a Gentleman”. She also appeared several times on Sesame Street in the 1970s. Her purported origin is a big part of her public persona.

 

[LuvOrlando]

The closest comp might be Iron Eyes Cody, aka Espera Oscar de Corti.

Buffy Saint-Marie was a singer-songwriter with a few well known songs she wrote, like “Up Where We Belong” which got her an Oscar as it was written for “An Officer and a Gentleman”. She also appeared several times on Sesame Street in the 1970s. Her purported origin is a big part of her public persona.

Oh wow, those are very well known songs, thanks for sharing I just took a look at her and assumed she was a folksy artist. I never dig too deep into artists, I like what they create and mostly leave it be. It makes me so sad that so many icons are falling one by one, the most recent is Steven Tyler, Dream On was my favorite song ever and now I'm just so bummed.

I know musicians are known to be a bit iffy with painting inside the lines but all this is just too far, it shows forethought and exploitation which is vile.

 

[bcla]

Oh wow, those are very well known songs, thanks for sharing I just took a look at her and assumed she was a folksy artist. I never dig too deep into artists, I like what they create and mostly leave it be. It makes me so sad that so many icons are falling one by one, the most recent is Steven Tyler, Dream On was my favorite song ever and now I'm just so bummed.

I know musicians are known to be a bit iffy with painting inside the lines but all this is just too far, it shows forethought and exploitation which is vile.

She's making claims that others are wrong. The only smoking gun is the birth certificate, and she's claiming that adopted parents could file for a birth certificate in the name of the child. However, the birth certificate has a signature of a doctor, so that seems iffy.

 

[Disneylover99]

If she really wanted to clear things up she should just do an ancestry test.
I doubt she will.

 

[barkley]

reminds me of the sacheen littlefeather situation-her family, researchers as well as tribal representatives have reported that her native heritage claims were entirely fabricated.

 

[ronandannette]

She's making claims that others are wrong. The only smoking gun is the birth certificate, and she's claiming that adopted parents could file for a birth certificate in the name of the child. However, the birth certificate has a signature of a doctor, so that seems iffy.

In Canada it's possible, or at least it was for many decades. I was adopted at birth and the only birth certificate I've ever seen has the name of my adoptive parents on it. But with Buffy, or Beverly as it were, the issue is that she was never actually adopted; not as a child, anyway. It would now seem she was born and raised in Massachusetts by her natural family - no proof whatsoever that she was removed from Canadian First Nations birth parents. Timelines indicate she was in her twenties when she started connecting with indigenous communities, one or more of which may well have "adopted" her at that point. That was and still is, a common practice in their cultures.

 

[bcla]

Yeah - the town clerk in Stoneham was adamant that if there was a record where she was adopted, the file would include a notation of that along with the place of birth.

That the birth certificate was filed the day after her birth and signed by a doctor makes it highly unlikely that it was for a birth elsewhere. I've heard of some states that will file birth certificates for birth elsewhere, but have a place to state the actual place of birth.

I think a lot of the controversy isn't just about possible appropriation of native culture, but also that she's gotten many honors as a result of purporting to be born in Canada.

 

[ronandannette]

Yeah - the town clerk in Stoneham was adamant that if there was a record where she was adopted, the file would include a notation of that along with the place of birth.

That the birth certificate was filed the day after her birth and signed by a doctor makes it highly unlikely that it was for a birth elsewhere. I've heard of some states that will file birth certificates for birth elsewhere, but have a place to state the actual place of birth.

I think a lot of the controversy isn't just about possible appropriation of native culture, but also that she's gotten many honors as a result of purporting to be born in Canada.

...taking them away from legitimate First Nations artists. Not cool, really not cool.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

If she really wanted to clear things up she should just do an ancestry test.
I doubt she will.

A well known politician did an ancestry test which confirmed her heritage. We all know how that worked out. Long story short the person that made the million dollar bet welched and then the very people that challenged her to take this "definitive" ancestry test once they were proven wrong moved the goal posts by claiming that genetic native American heritage doesn't mean you're native American.

 

[bcla]

 

[LuvOrlando]

She's making claims that others are wrong. The only smoking gun is the birth certificate, and she's claiming that adopted parents could file for a birth certificate in the name of the child. However, the birth certificate has a signature of a doctor, so that seems iffy.

There have been so many cases of people pretending to be other ethnicities and such to harness and manipulate feelings of kindness I fully expect this person just be lying. The fact they seek the spotlight armed with the fake identity makes it appear as though it was done to give a voice to the community, like with that monster Rachel Dolezal, all of them just eww.

 

[bcla]

She just had an honor bestowed by the government of Canada rescinded.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/buffy-sainte-marie-s-order-of-canada-terminated-by-gg-1.7454259​

Buffy Sainte-Marie's Order of Canada has been terminated, nearly three decades after she was appointed in 1997.​

​

The federal government's official publication posted the notice Friday evening, indicating that Governor General Mary Simon ordered the termination of Sainte-Marie's appointment on Jan. 3.​

And the notice referenced:

https://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2025/2025-02-08/html/gh-rg-eng.html#hl1​

TERMINATION OF APPOINTMENT TO THE ORDER OF CANADA​

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 on January 3, 2025.​

​

Ottawa, February 8, 2025​

​

Ken MacKillop
Secretary General of the Order of Canada​

I looked up who the Governor General of Canada is. She's actually of native ancestry - Inuktitut (Inuit) from the northern part of Quebec.

 

[Turn the Page]

When DH adopted DD18 after we got married she was issued a new birth certificate with his name listed as the father. It was not a closed adoption, she was 11 years old at the time and knew what was happening, after all. All of the other information on it was the same but I am not sure if we even could get a copy of her original birth certificate any more.

Issuing a new birth certificate with the adoptive families information would not surprise me at all. Isn't that what closed adoptions are? Obviously children of closed adoptions have a birth certificate to use and it wouldn't have their biological parents information on it.

 

[irlandaise]

I have news alerts set from CBC so I heard about this situation when The Fifth Estate first did their story. I'm not surprised that Mary Simon has now chosen to rescind Buffy's Order of Canada. It's a sad story but CBC really has the receipts, and nothing Buffy has said has convinced me otherwise.

 

[Deb]

A well known politician did an ancestry test which confirmed her heritage. We all know how that worked out. Long story short the person that made the million dollar bet welched and then the very people that challenged her to take this "definitive" ancestry test once they were proven wrong moved the goal posts by claiming that genetic native American heritage doesn't mean you're native American.

I didn't follow that story closely when it was in the news. The thing is, she could have native american ancestry that wouldn't show up in a test, depending on how far back the ancestor was. So if she claimed for instance, her grandmother was full blooded native american and it didn't show up in her dna, she's wrong. If the claim is her grandmother's grandmother was native american. Then maybe. Each generation further back more likely the claim could be true.

 

[irlandaise]

I didn't follow that story closely when it was in the news. The thing is, she could have native american ancestry that wouldn't show up in a test, depending on how far back the ancestor was. So if she claimed for instance, her grandmother was full blooded native american and it didn't show up in her dna, she's wrong. If the claim is her grandmother's grandmother was native american. Then maybe. Each generation further back more likely the claim could be true.

Considering that home DNA tests can tell you what percentage Neanderthal you are, it's hard to imagine how far back Native heritage would have to be to not show up. In any event, Buffy is not saying that she merely has some Indigenous ancestry, but rather that she is entirely Cree, born to First Nations parents in Canada and adopted by a White family in the U.S.

 

[Deb]

Considering that home DNA tests can tell you what percentage Neanderthal you are, it's hard to imagine how far back Native heritage would have to be to not show up. In any event, Buffy is not saying that she merely has some Indigenous ancestry, but rather that she is entirely Cree, born to First Nations parents in Canada and adopted by a White family in the U.S.

Not the way it works

you get 50% of your dna from each parent. After that people talk in averages. So they "say" you get 25% of your dna from each grandparent and 12.5% from each great grandparent and so on. But that is just an average. You can get 5% of your dna from one of your grandparents and 45% from the other in that couple. That's an extreme, but lets say it's 15% from one and 35% from the other. At that point the maximum amount you can get from the 15% grandparent's parent drops considerably. It does not take long until you inherited 0% from an ancestor. And therefore 0% from all of their ancestors.

 

[bcla]

When DH adopted DD18 after we got married she was issued a new birth certificate with his name listed as the father. It was not a closed adoption, she was 11 years old at the time and knew what was happening, after all. All of the other information on it was the same but I am not sure if we even could get a copy of her original birth certificate any more.

Issuing a new birth certificate with the adoptive families information would not surprise me at all. Isn't that what closed adoptions are? Obviously children of closed adoptions have a birth certificate to use and it wouldn't have their biological parents information on it.

It wouldn't be a birth certificate that's signed by a doctor and that lists the hospital.

Not sure what the form would be like in Massachusetts for a modified birth record after adoption. I know in California they have a standard adoptive birth record that looks considerably different than the standard form and the original birth certificate is "sealed" where the original form can only be obtained by court order or for specific purposes (like obtained by police).

MA does have a variety of different forms, including some that are either typed or handwritten on demand and include more limited information. I think those forms depend on the city, where it's primarily cities that issue birth certificates in Massachussetts. Some cities currently only issue "abstracts" with limited information as the default. But in this case, it's clear that it's for a hospital birth in Stoneham where the doctor signed it on the date of birth and it was filed the day after birth. This is clearly not an adoptive birth certificate, and mostly definitely not as she claims for a birth in Canada. The town clerk was contacted and noted that they would have a record if a birth certificate were changed after adoption.