Buffy Ste. Marie, (Cree), 1941-
She is a singer-songwriter, musician, artist, and teacher.
Born on the Piapot Reserve, near Regina, Saskatchewan but was
orphaned when only a few months old. She was adopted by a part-Mi'kmaq
family and raised in Wakefield, Massachusetts. She was later adopted
according to tribal customs on the Piapot Reserve by a Cree family
related to her natural parents. At 17 she took up the guitar,
and by her early twenties she had become an important figure in
Greenwich Village (New York) folk music circles. She is known
for her commitment to social causes, especially those of the Native
peoples of North America. Her earliest Canadian performances included
an appearance at the 1964 Mariposa Folk Festival. She also sang
at Expo 67 and in 1977 before Queen Elizabeth II at the Silver
Jubilee celebrations in Ottawa. Sainte-Marie appeared on several
CBC radio and TV shows and she was seen 1975-81 in Canada as a
regular performer on children's show, Sesame Street. Her 1996
variety special Up Where We Belong won her a Gemini Award. Sainte-Marie's
ballad 'Until It's Time for You to Go' (1972) has been recorded
by Elvis Presley, Cher, Neil Diamond, Robert Goulet Ginette Reno,
Barbra Streisand, and many others. 'The Universal Soldier', a
hit as recorded by Donovan, was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters
Hall of Fame in 2005. In the 1990s, Sainte-Marie was heard in
concert often in Canada, touring First Nations reserves and towns
in Western Canada and Ontario. She sang with the Regina Symphony
Orchestra under John Kim Bell, and with the National Arts Centre
Orchestra. She has performed in Sweden, Denmark, and France. Sainte-Marie
taught music and art at the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College;
York University; Evergreen State College, Washington; and the
Institute for American Indian Arts, New Mexico. She founded the
Nihewan Foundation for Native American Education in 1969; her
Cradleboard Teaching Project connects classes of Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal children on-line. She was a spokesperson for UNESCO,
and in 1997 was named the Native American Philanthropist of the
Year. She became an Officer in the Order of Canada in 1997, and
was awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2002. She received lifetime
achievement awards from the Saskatchewan Recording Industry Association
(1994), CARAS (Juno, 1995), the American Indian College Fund (1998),
and the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (1999). As
a painter, she has exhibited her work in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina,
Toronto, and Santa Fe.
