Buffy Saint-Marie performs at the Americana Music Honors and Awards Show in 2015, in Nashville, Tenn.
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Mark Zaleski / AP
The Canadian government has stripped Buffy Sainte-Marie of one of the highest honors in the country, after a report in 2023 noted that it had manufactured allegations of Aboriginal ancestry.
The termination of the order of the Oscar -winning singer was publicly shared on Saturday in the official publication of the Canadian government, the online publication of the Canadian government, the Canada Gazette. Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, signed the action on January 3, according to the opinion.
In an email at NPR, a representative of the Simon office said that the Governor General “does not comment on the details of the cases of dismissal”.
But the government’s dismissal policy stipulates that its decisions are, “based on evidence and guided by the principle of equity and will only be taken after the council checked the facts which it considers as relevant”.
Especially known for its 1964 anti-war anti-war hymn “Universal Soldier”, and for co-writing of the award-winning song by Oscars “Up where Belong”, Sainte-Marie received Canada’s order in 1997 for his services to Canadians Aboriginal. According to the entry on her into the Canadian Encylopedia, Sainte-Marie has been identified as the Cree of the Piapot first nation in Saskatchewan since the early 1960s and has long been recognized as a major indigenous artist.
The singer told NPR in 1988 that she had not seen other folk musicians attacking indigenous problems when she entered the world of music. “It was not only my contribution to a world ignorant of people who would like to know, but it was also a real attempt to change things, to fill the gap between the Indians and the rest of the world,” said Saint -Married.
But an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2023 questioned the claims of the singer of Aboriginal ancestry. The team said that she had found the interpreter’s American birth certificate, who said she was born Beverly Jean Santamaria, in the Massachusetts, to white parents.
Sainte-Marie defended herself in a video declaration that she published on social networks at the time.
“My mom growing up, who was proud to be part of Mi’kmaq, told me a lot, especially that I was adopted and that I was from,” said Sainte-Marie. “And later in life, as an adult, she also told me things that I have never shared out of respect for her. I hate to share now, including that I may have been born from the wrong side of the cover. “
The singer also said that she had always been honest not to know certain details on her roots. “I do not know where I come from, who are my biological parents, nor how I ended up an unsuitable in a typical city of Christian, Christian, of New England,” she said.
According to the website of the Order of Canada, since its creation in 1967, the honor has been granted to more than 7,600 people. “The Order of Canada is the way our country honors people who make extraordinary contributions to the nation,” said the website.
The representatives of Sainte-Marie did not immediately respond to requests for NPR comments.
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