Buffy Sainte-Marie, a musician identified for many years of Indigenous activism, says she’s all the time been sincere that she does not know the place she is from or who her delivery mother and father are forward of a CBC Information report that raises questions on her claims to First Nations ancestry.
“I do not know the place I am from or who my delivery mother and father have been, and I’ll by no means know. Which is why to be questioned on this method immediately is painful,” Sainte-Marie stated Thursday in an announcement.
“To those that query my reality, I say with love, I do know who I’m.”
Sainte-Marie, who’s in her early 80s, stated she was contacted final month by CBCÂ and known as allegations about her id “deeply hurtful.”
The CBC’s flagship investigative present, The Fifth Property, is scheduled to air an episode titled Making an Icon on Friday, about Sainte-Marie. Her claims to Indigenous ancestry are being known as into query by members of the family, and the investigation consists of genealogical documentation and historic analysis.
The investigation will probably be obtainable on cbcnews.ca, on The Fifth Property’s YouTube channel on Friday at 1 p.m. ET and on CBC TV and CBC Gem at 9 p.m.
Sainte-Marie additionally posted a video on social media addressing the upcoming episode, saying she has shared her story for 60 years. She known as herself “a proud member of the Native group with deep roots in Canada.”
“However there are additionally many issues I do not know, which I’ve all the time been sincere about. I do not know the place I am from, who my delivery mother and father are or how I ended up a misfit in a typical white Christian New England dwelling,” she stated within the video.
“I noticed many years in the past that I’d by no means have the solutions.”
Singer has usually spoken of her adoption
Sainte-Marie gained notoriety within the Nineteen Sixties for her singing and songwriting, and her well-known songs have been coated by Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. She grew to become famend for her protest songs and appearances on Sesame Road.
She is credited with being the primary Indigenous particular person to win an Oscar for finest unique music in 1982 for co-writing Up The place We Belong, the ballad from the film An Officer and a Gentleman.
Sainte-Marie has repeatedly spoken about her adoption, saying she is First Nations from Canada however was raised by Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, the latter who recognized as half Mi’kmaq, in Massachusetts.
Her 2018 licensed biography says there is not any official file of her delivery. It says she was in all probability born Cree on Piapot, a First Nation within the Qu’Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan, in about 1940. Named Beverly, she was nicknamed Buffy in highschool.
“To be born Cree within the Forties in Canada was to be an individual who was not all the time counted, no less than not in a proper and authorized trend,” the biography stated. “Start data from the time, notably on reserves, have been spotty, and there are numerous reviews of data being misplaced or destroyed.”
The biography says Sainte-Marie was adopted for causes which might be unclear.
Delia Opekokew, the musician’s former lawyer, was tasked with delving into Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous id.
Opekokew stated in an affidavit that she performed interviews with First Nations individuals of the world at the moment, together with Noel Starblanket, a former nationwide chief of the Nationwide Indian Brotherhood, which is now the Meeting of First Nations.
Adopted Piapot household calls allegations ‘ignorant’
Starblanket shared oral historical past saying household had defined that Sainte-Marie was born north of Piapot to a single lady “who couldn’t take care of her,” after which gave the newborn to an American household who occurred to be within the space, the affidavit stated.
Sainte-Marie stated Thursday that her “growing-up mother,” Winifred Sainte-Marie, informed her she was adopted and will have been born “on the incorrect facet of the blanket,” that means born out of wedlock.
Accounts of her life say Sainte-Marie looked for solutions about her delivery household early in her profession, which led her to a Saskatchewan couple — Emile Piapot, grandson of then-chief of the Piapot reserve, and Clara Starblanket, daughter of the chief of the File Hills reserve.
The biography says the couple “reportedly had a daughter taken from the reserve across the time Sainte-Marie was born.” Different accounts say the couple had different kids who died. In about 1964, Sainte-Marie was adopted as an grownup by way of Cree traditions into the Piapot household.
“However we by no means have identified whether or not I am a [biological] relative or not,” Sainte-Marie stated within the e-book.
Sainte-Marie, who introduced she was retiring from dwell performances earlier this yr, referenced her relationship with the Piapot First Nation in a podcast earlier this month, calling components of the story an city legend.
All through her profession, conflicting tales about her adoption have been revealed. Some say she was an toddler, others that she was two to 3 years previous when she was taken by the American household. Some say her delivery mother and father died, and her mom was killed in a automotive accident.
The Piapot household stated in an announcement that allegations in opposition to Sainte-Marie are “hurtful, ignorant, colonial — and racist.” They stated the singer was adopted within the conventional method.
“We declare her as a member of our household and all of our members of the family are from the Piapot First Nation. To us, that holds much more weight than any paper documentation or colonial file retaining ever may,” the household stated.