Canada's outing of "pretendians" may be right where they are taking reserved places but has CBC gone too far in persuing Buffy Sainte-Marie

[IwantToRetire]

I think I have read a bit about instances of "pretendian" where Canadians have claimed Indigenous heritage to get college places etc..

But without knowing the truth about Buffy Sainte-Marie didn't she in fact make a name for herself because of her talent, or are they implying she would not have been as famous as she was if she hadn't claimed Indigenous heritage?

If true is it as bad as Rachel Dolezal's deception?

In all honesty I dont know that much about her, but CBC thought it important enough to do a whole investigation into her. https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/buffy-sainte-marie

This is her statement in response. Even if you aren't on facebook you can just dismiss the sign in box. If you click on the image of the statement it should bring up a larger version, though still hard to read. https://www.facebook.com/BuffySainteMarie/posts/pfbid02LLqDomVDQaBdU2UxJ4jkSXxQGB4R5PR6paSgwLEUWJFJZ5xcCx4BVWLYkrH7f2G6l?locale=en_GB

I read this the day it came out and I was really shocked. And in general I have a pessimistic view of human behaviour!

As far as whether she'd have done as well without the lies - maybe. She is certainly very talented as a songwriter and performer. I do think though that her billing at that time as an "Indian girl" did really help her career. So, who knows how it would have played out without that.

What struck me was how deliberate it was. There have been cases like this where I felt it was much more ambiguous - stories in the family history of First Nations blood, unprovable, but could easily be true. (Often further back though than people realize. Generational memory is not always good about timespans.)And these figures have not always traded on it to such a degree, or spoken about indigenous issues, as much as BSM has.

And I think it's also important to understand that there has been something of a cultural change about bringing up that kind of connection. There was a time in the 80s and 90s where people with any connection were really encouraged to bring it out - it was about increasing representation in different sectors of society to be an inspiration. THis was especially common in the black community in North America, where even people with only a black grandparent or great-grandparent, or even further back, were described as being black.

That being said - it seems quite clear that Buffy SM actually concocted her story wholly, lied about the available evidence, made up false excuses to cover her tracks, threatened her family, and maybe even falsely accused her brother of being a sexual molester to keep them quiet. It's really quite extreme.

I also think, unlike Rachel D, she doesn't seem to have been disturbed or vulnerable in other ways.

It is interesting though, from the perspective of Id politics, and I think has a real relation to a lot of the problems we see in gender ideology.

I haven't read the story closely enough. I thought the story of her heritage came because of her adoption and having no real knowledge of her biological family, but found out about it later in life.

Seems a bit crazy when you are in the public eye to risk being found out for lying or concocting a false heritage.

But can see that in terms of getting a public profile it probably did help in her early career.

Artist and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous identity has been challenged by a CBC investigation but her Piapot First Nation, Sask. family stands by the 82-year-old, calling the narrative “ignorant,” “colonial” and “racist.”

Ntawnis Piapot, speaking for the family, says the bombshell claim that Sainte-Marie has no Indigenous blood has no bearing on her belonging to the Cree family.

Piapot is the great-granddaughter of Emile Piapot and Clara Starblanket, both deceased, who adopted Sainte-Marie some six decades ago.

Piapot says Sainte-Marie connected with the Piapot First Nation after she met her grandfather at a powwow in Ontario.

“There was just things that kind of lined up to her story too,” she told Global News.

“My grandparents had 10 children and some of them died because of the Indian Act system, because they couldn’t get proper health care on the reserve and so she was at that age where one of their children passed away and they kind of connected on that.

More at https://globalnews.ca/news/10049385/buffy-sainte-marie-accusations-identity/

Being adopted in that way as an adult has nothing to do with her being indigenous though. Anyone can be adopted into a family like that.

The fact of the matter seems to be that as a child, she was never adopted at all. The people she claimed adopted her were her real parents. Her birth certificate is right where it should be and is completely in order. Her claims that the Canadian birth certificate was lost or destroyed in fires didn't happen, and more. It was all a complete fabrication.

If it's true then she is a true fantasist or a liar with no conscience.

Wow. I'm just taking this in now - had no idea.

Providing this is true, it's not really about her career.

It's about the past and ongoing horrific treatment of Canada's First Nations, and about what it might mean for them for a non-Indigenous person to take for herself fame, awards, honours and opportunities that were based on her appearing to belong to a vulnerable community; to pose as a role model for a culture she didn't belong to; and to take a voice away from people who aren't listened to much anyway and replace it with a white voice, however much of an advocate she seemed to be.

If you want a little backstory and have time to google some terms like "missing and murdered Indigenous women Canada," "highway of tears," "starlight tours," "First Nations women sterilised," "Thunder Bay Indigenous drowning" and "children's bodies" with "residential schools," you may start to get the sense that there isn't and hasn't been any reason for Indigenous people to trust white Canadians, and a betrayal like this could hit pretty hard. Yes a family from Piapot First Nation did adopt her and that community stands by her, while acknowledging that her birth claims may not be true. But that doesn't mean there's no wider impact on First Nations across Canada.

Looks like this story has been around for a while. A family member told the press that Sainte-Marie didn't have Indigenous ancestry way back in the mid sixties, and the family claims Buffy threatened legal action to get them to keep quiet.

This shit keeps happening, too. Most recent one I read about was Michelle Latimer who made films with and about Indigenous people and her claim to have Indigenous heritage was very shaky at best.

Being adopted in that way as an adult has nothing to do with her being indigenous though. Anyone can be adopted into a family like that.

Yes on a factual level, but interesting that her First Nation Family says that her having "no Indigenous blood has no bearing on her belonging". Which raises the question of if they dont feel deceived by this, is is appropriate for a (presumably white dominated) media company to write as though it is unacceptable.

Or is it “ignorant,” “colonial” and “racist.”

I think it came up on the discussion about Rachel Dolezal that a BME Theatre Company has a member who was white Irish but had experienced racist reactions because of his appearance, and he was accepted as part of the theatre group.

I wonder if this was the case with Buffy Sainte Maire (although saw no mention of anything like this).

I know little about her, but my Gran told me about this and was disappointed. When I read about it, the birth records and statements by relatives do make it seem that she has been living a lie. That's sad to have happened and I wonder, at her advanced age, whether she ended up more or less believing her tale.

What struck me also was that she seems to have associated with different heritages over the years. This went unnoticed?

@LuciaPillson Our posts happened at the same time. And I think most people, even if only through sanitised tv series or films are aware of the terrible treatment of First Nation peoples, and particularly the horrendous level of violence women from that group have experienced.

I suppose as with most things, responses in a community of a shared identity opinions will vary.

That's why I was saying if some dont mind, but some do, is it up to the dominant white group to decided they will orchestrate who will be exposed and who wont. ie is it just a ratings boost motivation.

Would be interesting to see how this would have been presented if this exposé had come via members of the First Nations.

And I do wonder when papers say members of her family were told if they tried to expose her they would be sued. Which may be true but would meant Buffy Sainte-Marie outing herself.

to pose as a role model for a culture she didn't belong to; and to take a voice away from people who aren't listened to much anyway and replace it with a white voice, however much of an advocate she seemed to be.

Is that what she did? I dont really know about her. I just thought she was a sort of folk singer similar to others of that era. Joni Mitchell Judy Collins and so on.

As an aside, the TW of the “wax their balls” infamy, self identified as First Nations in Canada to obtain quicker access to Covid vaccines/boosters…

”Seems a bit crazy when you are in the public eye to risk being found out for lying or concocting a false heritage.”

Back when the lies began, there was no internet and the chances of the kind of research that is possible now, and all the connections that can be made, weren’t there. It could have started as an error on someone else’s part that she didn’t bother to correct, or it might have been a spur of the moment lie, which then snowballed. And given how long she’s got away with it, it’s certainly paid off.

@IwantToRetire

I think most people, even if only through sanitised tv series or films are aware of the terrible treatment of First Nation peoples, and particularly the horrendous level of violence women from that group have experienced.

Oh some of it, yes, but I don't assume people know specifics, particularly where Canada is concerned, and some may assume that mistreatment of First Nations people is in the past rather than ongoing. I didn't know about the things I listed until comparatively recently.

I suppose as with most things, responses in a community of a shared identity opinions will vary.

Yes, that's inevitable I guess. The CBC article has quotes from First Nations people who do mind this and explain why.

...if some dont mind, but some do, is it up to the dominant white group to decided they will orchestrate who will be exposed and who wont.
I suppose a famous person suspected of faking their background will always make the news (Hilaria Baldwin for eg). Wonder who tipped the CBC off though and why!

Would be interesting to see how this would have been presented if this exposé had come via members of the First Nations. Yes it would!

Is that what she did? I dont really know about her. I just thought she was a sort of folk singer similar to others of that era. Joni Mitchell Judy Collins and so on.

Well, I think so. Even just being a folk singer, being so well-known would have been important as there aren't a huge number of very well-known First Nations celebrities and I think it's fair to call her a role model.

Then besides that, her Wikipedia lists her as an educator and social activist concerned with Indigenous issues. She appeared on Sesame Street to help kids understand more about being Indigenous. She spoke out, supported protests, wrote and performed songs about Indigenous issues, created educational materials for Indigenous kids and so on. These things are mentioned in the article you linked in your op.

She actually did a lot of good things. I just wish, if it's true that she misrepresented her heritage, that she could have done those things as an ally, they still would have been great things to do.

But you're right that I don't have the ultimate say over whether or not this is a big deal. It just doesn't feel right to me to claim a spurious heritage, particularly if one thereby has access to opportunities intended for a less privileged group. And it's hard for me to understand why people do it and how on earth they get away with it. It would confuse my brain (never very clear at the best of times) and I could never pull it off!

Yes @LuciaPillson she has clearly done good things. Many of those were in the guise of being someone she doesn't seem to be.

In the same category is 'Sacheen Littlefeather' of Brando no to an Oscar speech fame. Her transition to a Native American identity seems to have been around the time of a mental health crisis. Among many other things she was an actress, nutritionist, activist and model. Note the costume switches from Western at the 52 second mark here.

Sacheen Littlefeather Modeling For Photo Shoot (1971) - Bay Area Television Archive (sfsu.edu)

I’m so shocked by this. I can barely believe it - lying for so long about something so fundamental.

Bloody hell. Buffy Saint-Marie of all people.

It's difficult to separate the folk music movement in the 60s from politics. It had a huge element that was focused on political activism. That was all wrapped up together, racial politics, anti-war, etc.

And Buffy SM was really an icon in the indigenous community, so it is going to be a really big story, and there are going to be loads of people who feel really betrayed or bamboozled by it. I imagine a lot of her activism was honestly meant, but that all seems tainted.

I would also say that she was very overt about the claim to First Nations identity. You get some people, like Jospeh Boyden, who claimed that heritage, but basically just wrote books about it. Other than that he seemed to live like any other North American person (like lots of First Nations people.) Buffy SM was very very overt in terms of things like dressing herself up to emphasize the indigenous link. It comes off now as having a constant, ongoing play acting quality that looks like a very complete sort of fraud.

I haven’t watched the documentary, but it’s naive to accept that birth certificates are always a truthful record. From her photos, she is very striking , and looks First Nation to me, although appearance isn’t everything. There are interesting discussions to be had about identity, going beyond the level of appearance. My great grandfather was African, no one would know that from looking at me, but my sister very obviously had some African features. I think that affected the perception of others, and she directly experienced racism. I am very interested in that part of my history, not seeking to make myself special, but because my great grandfather had an extraordinary life, and his children and grandchildren , in the U.K. in the early 20th century, were marked out and mistreated because of their genetic inheritance. Many people have a history and life experience not immediately apparent. Unlike sex, race is quite fluid.

Sometimes birth certificates can be unclear, but that does not seem to be the case here.

It is in the right place in the vault of the local public records, ordered correctly, consistent with others in the record and her siblings. There are none of the amendments or documents associated with either an adoption or a child that came across the border from Canada.

She claimed the hospital where she was born burned down, destroying the records. IN fact there was never any hospital in that place, and those records aren't kept in hospitals anyway. Similarly her claim that those records aren't open for her to see is untrue, by law they are.

She suggested she was taken up in the "60's Scoop" but was actually born too early for that to be likely.

And contrary to her claims, and what many people believe who are causally interested, there are actually very good records for First Nations children born in Canada during that period.

Basically, her explanation of the records doesn't stack up.

It's somewhat ironic that in fact, Indian tribes (I'm not sure about the Cree specifically) did have a custom of adopting outsiders, often children kidnapped during wars but sometimes adults too. It was a way to keep up the community numbers when life was difficult, or to bring in someone who could do some practical good for the tribe, and to let families replace lost members. So in that sense, Buffy Ste Marie and her Cree friends were following genuine Indian tradition. But white people wouldn't really accept that--we'd say "She made friends with the Canadian First Nations people, but she's really an American of Italian descent". It all sounded much better if she claimed to be an Indian by birth.

What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

Not related to this particular case, but I know a woman from a different part of the world who was born to parents from a small indigenous population (call it x). The parents had moved away before she was born, but she regularly visited her grandparents and other relatives there.

She told me that in the tradition of the x, to be a member of x you had to live the culture. If you did not, you were not a member, whatever your blood relations might be. So she was told that she was family, but not x.

There has been a great deal of consciousness-raising in indigenous communities in the last ten years or so, in the US and in Canada. This is the context in which she has been outed.

It's about time, imo.

Just in case any one thinks I am trying to defend her, its more that I suppose I am trying to work out in my mind how this situation could have happened, and apparently been accepted, in public if not behind closed doors, for so long. And we do know from many other lives that the media is very good at proping up a false representation of someone in the public eye eg Jimmy Saville and others.

Have or were her parents (those who raised her) been interviewed or ever made a statement? It was after all Rachel Dolezal's parents who outed her. Although from having read a bit about this, maybe they keep a low profile as there are allegations that she was sexually abused by her brother.

But if as mentioned up thread, she was so public about using her public identity to then talk about and represent First Nation peoples and cultures, it clearly isn't right, unless you accept that her adoption as an adult and being immersed in the culture equates.

But as mentioned in another post upthread, it is the lived experience that counts. As in the post about 2 sisters from the same family being treated differently purely on appearance.

There was a story about an Irish man who was often taken to be / seen as being "Black" and suffered racism. Later on he became part of a Black Theatre group who knew his history but accepted that his lived experience meant they felt he could be part of the group.

And, not saying this to make out I am well informed, but part of my awareness of the terrible treatment of Indigenous Canadians, and specifically the violence suffered by women from the community, is because of tv series (sorry very low brow). There have been quite a number of crime / thriller series where the plot is about this. One which was obviously a vehicle to a male star was based on real events, and was just horrifying. Not just the violence, but the number of women who were brutally murdered.

Not that the making of these tv series has in any way changed what is happening.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2021/12/29/no-one-will-believe-you-when-the-rcmp-abuses-indigenous-girls

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/3/24/the-indigenous-people-killed-by-canadas-police

Well, Buffy Ste Marie is 82 years old, and it wouldn't have been unnatural if she'd died before this became public, and then she wouldn't have to deal with it at her present age. Whereas Jimmy Savile may be facing retribution elsewhere, but he got away with all his crimes here on this earth. Truly life is unfair.

In commemoration of #MMIWG2S+(missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people) which is recognized as the National Day of Awareness and Action on May 5 (also referred to as "Red Dress Day"), we share some important on-screen stories. They each provide profound insight into the significance of this ongoing systemic issue, that has injustices circulated continuously within its vicious cycle, from historical oppression to problematic law enforcement- that must end now.
https://news.onefeather.ca/5-films-tv-series-associated-with-mmiw

Buffy Sainte-Marie’s full response to CBC via link below
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/buffy-sainte-marie-statement-cbc-native-identity/

https://quillette.com/2022/04/29/predators-dont-get-to-pick-their-pronouns/

Article discussing Gwen Bennaway, and others who made false claims about their heritage.

it's difficult but i think, bottom line, if people are sucking up resources and opportunities that are intended for traditionally oppressed or disadvantaged people you have to "go for" them all and not just some.

So, yes, expose B S-M if the truth is other than she has told us over the years. In the knowledge that it is almost impossible to undo any harm she may have caused. And if the First Nations Peoples are saying "stop, she is one of us" we should believe them.

But then other "cheats" should be "gone after" with the same fervour. TW taking women's places, other people (Elizabeth Warren?) taking First Nation Peoples' opportunities, and so on.

Not just the low-hanging-fruit of an elderly lady.