Buffy Sainte-Marie

Biography

Canadian-born American singer-songwriter, guitarist, political activist, and visual artist known especially for her use of music to promote awareness of issues affecting Native Americans. Orphaned as an infant in Canada when her mother, a Plains Cree, died in an auto accident, Sainte-Marie was adopted by an U.S. couple of Mi’kmaq ancestry and raised in Massachusetts & Maine. Her earliest days as a self-taught folk singer were spent shaking up the coffeehouses and consciousnesses in Greenwich Village and helping Joni Mitchell get discovered. Along with her lifelong commitment to and advocacy for Indigenous and Aboriginal people around the world, she has changed the education system from within, and maintained an unwavering passion for social justice, equality and the Earth mixed with her love of sound and songs. Her legacy is that of as an ever-curious, ever-evolving, and technologically pioneering musician, producer, composer and artist — despite her inability to read a note of music.

Known For

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

as Self

Top of the Pops

as Self

The Virginian

as Nai'Be

Austin City Limits

as Self

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World

as Self

Festival

as Self

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child

as The Spirit (voice)

Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation

as Self

Broken Rainbow

as Translator's Voice (voice)

The Merv Griffin Show

as Self