Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie has responded to questions about her Indigenous ancestry that will be raised in a CBC report airing this week.
"I have always struggled to answer questions about who I am," Sainte-Marie, 82, said in a statement released Thursday. "Through that research what became clear, and what I’ve always been honest about, is that I don’t know where I’m from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know."
Questions about Sainte-Marie's Indigenous ancestry are central to an upcoming episode of CBC's news documentary show The Fifth Estate, which reportedly includes testimony from family members.
"Respectfully, we don't comment on stories that have yet to air," Chuck Thompson, head of public affairs with the CBC, said in a written statement to CTV News. "Tomorrow, the Fifth Estate will present 'Making an Icon,' a documentary about Buffy Sainte-Marie which goes into great detail regarding genealogical documentation, historical research and personal accounts."
Sainte-Marie's website describes her as a "Cree singer-songwriter" who "is believed to have been born in 1941 on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan and taken from her biological parents when she was an infant."
Sainte-Marie said Thursday that the CBC contacted her in September over the "deeply hurtful allegations."
"I am proud of my Indigenous-American identity, and the deep ties I have to Canada and my Piapot family," Sainte-Marie said in a written statement. "My Indigenous identity is rooted in a deep connection to a community which has had a profound role in shaping my life and my work."
According to her website, Sainte-Marie was adopted and raised in Maine and Massachusetts by a "visibly white couple."
"As a child, Buffy’s adoptive mother self-identified as part Mi’kmaq but knew little about Indigenous culture," the website says, referring to the northeastern First Nations people. "She encouraged Buffy to find things out for herself when she grew up."
In her statement Thursday, Sainte-Marie said she learned about her Indigenous ancestry from her own research and via her mother, who later told her that she may have been born out of wedlock.
"My mother told me many things, including that I was adopted and that I was Native, but there was no documentation as was common for Indigenous children born in the 1940’s," Sainte-Marie said. "Later in my life, as an adult, she told me some things I have never shared out of respect for her that I hate sharing now, including that I may have been born on 'the wrong side of the blanket.'"
Sainte-Marie's website lists her as "the first Indigenous person ever to win an Oscar" for co-writing the 1982 hit song "Up Where We Belong" from the film An Officer and a Gentleman.
Other notable songs from her six-decade career include "Now That the Buffalo are Gone," "Cod'ine" and "Universal Soldier," which was covered by Donovan and Glen Campbell. She is also noted for her activism on anti-war and Indigenous issues, which allegedly caused her to be blacklisted by the FBI.
Sainte-Marie's powerful 1964 debut album "It's My Way" cemented her status in the burgeoning folk music scene of the 1960s. Known for her poignant lyrics and unique guitar tunings, she experimented with electronic music on 1969's "Illuminations" before making country and rock records.
Her last album "Medicine Songs" was released in 2017. Sainte-Marie was also a regular guest on the show Sesame Street between 1976 and 1981, where she promoted Indigenous knowledge and famously nursed her son during a 1977 episode, which is believed to be the first instance of breastfeeding on television. Sainte-Marie was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1997.
In August, Sainte-Marie announced that she would be retiring from live performances, citing health concerns and physical challenges.
"I have made the difficult decision to pull out of all scheduled performances in the foreseeable future," Sainte-Marie said in an Aug. 3 statement. "Arthritic hands and a recent shoulder injury have made it no longer possible to perform to my standard."
In a podcast appearance earlier this year, Sainte-Marie explained that she was adopted "into" the Piapot family from the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan, and not adopted out of the Cree community.
In a statement, members of the Piapot family called the questions about Sainte-Marie's ancestry "hurtful, ignorant, colonial – and racist."
"No one, including Canada and its governments, the Indian Act, institutions, media or any person anywhere can deny our family’s inherent right to determine who is a member of our family and community," the statement signed by Debra and Ntawnis Piapot said. "Buffy is our family. We chose her and she chose us. We claim her as a member of our family and all of our family members are from the Piapot First Nation. To us, that holds far more weight than any paper documentation or colonial record keeping ever could."
Sainte-Marie also released an affidavit from her former lawyer Delia Opekokew, who looked into her indigenous identity.
The affidavit says Opekokew collected "oral history evidence" that Sainte-Marie "was born north of Piapot to a single woman who could not care for her, and that she gave Buffy as a baby to an American family who happened to be in the Piapot area."
"There was consistency in the witnesses to Buffy Sainte-Marie's identity," Opekokew wrote. "I have no doubt that Buffy Sainte-Marie is an Indigenous woman with community accountability through her Piapot family in Saskatchewan."
Sainte-Marie herself said that she was adopted into the Piapot family as a young adult "in accordance with Cree law and customs."
"While these questions have hurt me, I know they will also hurt those I love. My family. My friends. And all those who have seen themselves in my story," Sainte-Marie said Thursday. "All I can say is what I know to be true: I know who I love, I know who loves me. And I know who claims me."
Sainte-Marie also released a video statement on social media Thursday in which she describes being told of her native heritage as a child in the U.S. before finding her second "chosen family" in Canada.
"They're questions I've struggled with my whole life," she said of her ancestry in the nearly three-minute video. "And to those who question my truth, I say with love: I know who I am."
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