Buffy Sainte-Marie responds to CBC documentary questioning her Indigenous identity

Buffy’s written response. Omg. pic.twitter.com/qaWDRShbdz

— Willow Fiddler (@WillowFiddler) October 26, 2023

• This Friday CBC has planned to air a documentary on singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie calling into question her indigenous identity.
• The description for the episode says: Buffy Sainte-Marie’s claims to Indigenous ancestry are being called into question by family members and an investigation that included genealogical documentation, historical research and personal accounts.
• Sainte-Marie’s birth origins have always been murky by her own admission. She did not know her birth parents and came to be raised by white American parents. It is believed she was an early victim of the Sixties Scoop, the colloquial name given to Canadian governmental policy that snatched First Nations children from their birth families and placed them with white families

Statement from the Piapot family ahead of CBC’s doc on Friday regarding Buffy Ste. Marie and her Indigenous identity. pic.twitter.com/L6cj7g5R0m

— Willow Fiddler (@WillowFiddler) October 25, 2023

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THR has a really great summary on why this is such a sensitive issue:

Authenticating Native identity is a nuanced and sensitive issue that varies from tribe to tribe. Some demand blood quantum, others a clear genealogical link to early tribal census records.  Systematic cultural erasure and forced assimilation of Indigenous people by both the Canadian and U.S. governments has further muddied the ability to prove ancestral connections, and Native people are divided on how strictly to gatekeep claims to the heritage, while also acknowledging that opportunistic (and fraudulent) exploitation of Native culture by outsiders for individual and corporate gain runs rampant.