Buffy Sainte-Marie, Oscar Winner For ‘Up Where We Belong,’ Stripped of Order of Canada
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Buffy Sainte-Marie (Photo: D. Brian Campbell; used with permission)
Buffy Sainte-Marie has been stripped of her Order of Canada appointment. The move, which was officially signed on January 3, 2025, but first revealed on February 7 by the Toronto Star, follows the controversy surrounding the musician that she had fabricated her indigenous North American heritage. No reason for the termination was given. Those allegations of her heritage came to light in October 2023.
The Order of Canada, established in 1967, recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.
In its reporting, the newspaper wrote that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation found the musician’s birth certificate in 2023, “which says she was born in 1941 in Massachusetts. The document lists the baby and parents as white and includes a signature of an attending physician — information CBC says is corroborated by Sainte-Marie’s marriage certificate, a life insurance policy and the U.S. census. Family members in the U.S., including Sainte-Marie’s younger sister, also told CBC that Sainte-Marie was not adopted and does not have Indigenous ancestry.”
The Canadian singer-songwriter had announced her retirement from live performances two months’ earlier, on August 3, citing travel-induced health concerns and physical challenges. Sainte-Marie, born on Feb. 20, 1941, became the first indigenous North American to win an Academy Award when “Up Where We Belong,” which she co-wrote with Jack Nitzsche (her husband at the time) and Will Jennings for the 1982 film An Officer and A Gentleman, won the Oscar for Best Original Song. The duet recording by Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker was a #1 single on the Hot 100 and many other countries, and won a second Oscar for the pair as Best Pop Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocals.
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Buffy Sainte-Marie Jack Nitzsche during their acceptance speech at the Academy Awards in 1983.
Sainte-Marie has always claimed to have been born in the Piapot 75 Reserve in Saskatchewan, Canada, to Cree parents. As a toddler, she was taken from her birth parents in what was known as the “Sixties Scoop,” and adopted by an American couple, Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, in a suburb of Boston, Mass. In her early twenties, she toured alone, playing coffeehouses in Toronto and in New York’s Greenwich Village. She was signed to Vanguard Records and released her first album in 1964, continuing to release one annually into the ’70s, five of which charted on the U.S. albums chart. Beginning in 1976, she made regular appearances on Sesame Street. Sainte-Marie’s compositions have been recorded by Janis Joplin (“Cod’ine”) and Elvis Presley (“Until It’s Time For You To Go”), among many others. Her protest song, “Universal Soldier,” became a modest hit for both Donovan and Glen Campbell. Her most recent album was 2017’s Medicine Songs.
In her statement about her decision to stop performing live, Sainte-Marie wrote, “I have made the difficult decision to pull out of all scheduled performances in the foreseeable future. Arthritic hands and a recent shoulder injury have made it no longer possible to perform to my standards. Sincere regrets to all my fans and family, my band and the support teams that make it all possible.”
4 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationWell, what do you know. I was just listening to Glen Campbell’s “Universal Soldier” and I said to myself “Self, that has got to be a Phil Ochs song.” Was I ever wrong. Sorry, Buffy.
Good, as someone who can prove I am Indian, stolen culture is a real thing and it’s despicable. BSM is the Rachel Dolezal of music.
As is often the case (see Sen. Warren D-Mass) a good story is sometimes too good.
FWIW – ‘Until It’s Time for You to Go’ is a great song.
Laura Nyro wrote magnificent songs with A LOT of soul, and never claimed to be raised in a Black church by Black parents. BSM’s music could have stood on its own without the personal story fiction.
You do not know that Buffy Saint Marie “invented” that story. that could be the story she was told, it could be the reality. The documents could be fabricated because adoption may have been more Shameful back then. In fact, adoptions were sealed back then. And they were often considered shameful back then, so I don’t know how anyone would know for sure, but Buffy was adopted by a first nations tribe which makes her a First Nations person. Her younger sister would have no reason to be told the true story ask for adopted mother wanted the family to be known as white. The same could be true for a marriage certificate. I didn’t see anything about an ancestry DNA test.