Buffy Sainte-Marie as PDF file

The first Native American female singer to
break onto the popular music front and to
make national headlines was Buffy SainteMarie. She was Cree from Canada who was
raised in New England.
Her first song to garner the attention of the
general public was Universal Soldier. Her
first song to garner the attention of First
Nations peoples was Now that the Buffalo are
Gone. This song was used in virtually every
documentary about American Indians made
in the 1960s and 1970s, and the film you are
going to watch next not only used this song in
the film, but titled the film after Buffy’s song.
This film has local relevance and that is why
the whole film will be shown.
Buffy
Sainte-Marie
Now That the Buffalo are Gone
Buffy Sainte-Marie graduated from Boston University in
1962, an era after the beatniks and before the hippies.
During her years as a philosophy and education major,
she played in coffee shops and local scenes and got some
positive attention. At the time, she did it for fun and a
little spending money. By the time she graduated, she
was popular enough to schedule a national concert tour.
With just her guitar and a few other instruments, she
toured North America's colleges, reservations and
concert halls, meeting both huge acclaim and huge
misperception from audiences and record companies
who expected Pocahontas in fringes, and instead were
both entertained and educated with their initial dose of
Native American reality in the first person.
By age 24, Buffy SainteMarie had appeared all
over Europe, Canada,
Australia and Asia,
receiving honors, medals
and awards which
continue to this day.
Her song
Universal
Soldier
became the
anthem of
the peace
movement. For her very
first album,
It’s My Way,
she was
voted
Billboard's
Best New
Artist.
Universal Soldier
Buffy Sainte-Marie in the 1960s/1996
She never quit her day job, so to
speak, as she continued her studies
at the University of Massachusetts,
earning a Doctor of Philosophy
degree in 1971, a rarity among
popular musicians.
Her songs brought an indigenous
philosophy to the general American
pubic. That philosophy is referred
to by Scott Pratt as Native
Pragmatism in his recent book,
outlining in significant detail the
Indigenous origins of America’s
predominant philosophical tradition.
Native pragmatism is
expressed quite
poignantly in the song
Until Its Time for You
to Go, a classic love
song of the 20th
century recorded by
more than 10 popular
artists and selling tens
of millions of copies in
its various renditions.
This song may have
been written about
Peter LaFarge.
Until Its Time for You to Go
In the early 1960s popular
entertainment was all
escapist in nature, utilizing
traditional stereotypes
derived from fairy tale
notions of propriety. That is
probably difficult for
someone growing up in
recent times to comprehend,
but it went unchallenged
before the early 1960s until
songs like Until Its Time for
you to Go became a part of
the popular culture.
Buffy Sainte-Marie became known
as a writer of protest and love
songs. Peter LaFarge was her close
friend, and she joined his
organization FAIR (Federation for
Indian Rights).
Having written Universal Soldier,
which became an anthem for the
sixties’ peace movement, she was
nevertheless absent from the mass
protest marches. Instead, she
preferred to shed her unique light
on Indian and environmental
issues, which she continues to do
today “because nobody else was
covering those bases" after Peter
LaFarge died.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Buffy wrote scores for movies and
theme songs for movies. The first theme
song was for Soldier Blue, a movie
about the Sand Creek massacre of the
Cheyenne led by Reverend Chivington.
The second theme
song Buffy wrote
was Up Where We
Belong for the
movie Officer and a
Gentleman.
She won an
academy award
for that song, and it
also became a big
hit. The lyrics of
this song also
reflect Native
Pragmatism.
Up Where We Belong
Buffy also wrote essays, became a pioneer
in digital art, presented a colloquium to
Europe's philosophers, established a
scholarship foundation to fund Native
studies, and spent time with Indigenous
people in far away countries.
Buffy went from Greenwich Village to Europe, Canada,
Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan, and had a very strong
career outside of the U.S. She received a medal from Queen
Elizabeth II, named an officer in the Order of Canada, won a
Gemini for her TV special, was elected in the Juno Hall of
Fame, won an Academy Award, and France presented her
with the Grand Prix Charles de Gaulle Award. She has also
received an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from the
University of Regina.
Though she
has been
honored all
over the
world, Buffy
has never let
her clebrity
status change
her down to
earth way of
thinking and
has always
remained a
country girl
at heart.
Today, her digital home studio is as personal and handson for her as a guitar was in the sixties. Her come-back
CD, Coincidence and Likely Stories, was made at home.
Using her Macintosh as a recording instrument, she
played most of the parts herself. When it was just the
way she wanted it, she dialed the number of her coproducer in London, England, and sent the music down
the phone lines via modem, bounced it off the satellite,
and it went onto tape in London.
Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo
1996: She was working to help First Nations youth become more
computer literate. Was this song written about Peter LaFarge?
She married musician Jack Nitzsche in 1969, and regularly
appeared on the PBS TV series Sesame Street for a five year
period from 1976 - 1981, with her son Dakota Starblanket
Wolfchild.
Magic is Alive
In 1976, Buffy quit recording to raise her son and to work at
home as an artist after her 5 year stint on Sesame Street. In
1993 she returned to music and recorded Coincidence and
Likely Stories. That same year, she helped establish a new
Juno Awards category for aboriginal music. 1993 continued
to be a banner year for her as she headlined a concert of
Indigenous artists in Lapland. The program was televised in
Germany, Sweden, Norway and Finland. France named her
best international artist for 1993, and the United Nations
asked her to proclaim 1993 as the International Year of
Indigenous People.
GOD IS ALIVE
MAGIC IS AFOOT
words: Leonard Cohen
music: Buffy Sainte-Marie
© Stranger Music, Inc./Caleb Music-ASCAP
Leonard Cohen's book Beautiful Losers stole my heart in
1963, and so did the idea of electronic processing on a
vocal recorder.
I had a recording session scheduled and Leonard was in
town. I propped two pages of his book up on a music
stand and I just sang it out, ad libbing the melody and
guitar music together as I went along. I've always wanted
to re-record it, as I love the way the power of the words
obviously commands the music and drives it beyond any
consideration of time signature.
Probably the strongest lyrics Buffy Sainte-Marie
ever wrote or sang are in the song My Country ‘Tis
of Thy People Your’re Dyeing. She was active in
support of the American Indian Movement in the
militancy of the early 1970s, and saw a number of
her friends killed and imprisoned by the FBI and
those supported by the FBI.
A recent article in Indian Today says Buffy was
blacklisted, and President Johnson and others
praised and rewarded stations who refused to play
her music, much like what recently happened with
the Dixie Chicks. In this case, however, it involved
letters directly from the President, if evidence in a
recent court case in Phoenix is valid.
Buffy Sainte-Marie's censored sounds.
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today August 05, 2006
PHOENIX - Nearly two decades after Cree singer and
songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie's song ''Universal Soldier'' was
released and shipments of her records mysteriously
disappeared, the truth of the censorship and suppression by
the U.S. government became public.
Now, in federal court, Charles August Schlund III stated he was
a covert operative and supported Sainte-Marie's assertions
that the United States took action to suppress her music
because of its role in rallying opposition to the Vietnam War.
Sainte-Marie says she was blacklisted and, along with other
American Indians in the Red Power movements, was put out of
business in the 1970s.
''I found out 10 years later, in the 1980s, that [President]
Lyndon Johnson had been writing letters on White House
stationary praising radio stations for suppressing my music,''
Sainte-Marie said in a 1999 interview with Indian Country
Today at Diné College.
During this time (late 1960s-early 1970s), Sainte-Marie was selling more
records than ever in Canada, Europe and Asia. But in the United States,
her records were disappearing. Thousands of people at concerts wanted
to buy her records. Although the distributor said the records had been
shipped, no one seemed to know where they were. One thing was for
sure: “They were not on record store shelves,” Buffy said.
''I was put out of business in the United States.''
Fellow activist and Santee poet John Trudell's wife, mother-in-law and
children were burned to death in a mysterious house fire shortly after
Trudell burned an American flag in Washington, D.C., Feb. 11, 1979.
''I was just one person put out of business. John Trudell is just another
person whose life was put out of business. Anna Mae Aquash and
Leonard Peltier were put out of the living business - we were made
ineffective,'' Sainte-Marie said of slain American Indian Movement activist
Aquash and imprisoned Peltier.
Those years, however, were filled with pain. ''It was hard - seeing people
hurt,'' she said.
The pain and resentment are expressed in the lyrics of
My Country “Tis of thy People You’re Dying
The Pain and Resentment
many Indigenous people feel are expressed in the lyrics of
My Country ‘Tis of thy People You’re Dying
Today Buffy teaches at colleges,
and lectures in a variety of fields
including digital art, philosophy,
film scoring, electronic music,
song writing, Indian issues and
the Native genius for
governments.
Most importantly, Buffy teaches
to remain positive amidst tough
human realities. Her digital
paintings vary in style as do her
songs, speeches, classes and
essays, each reflecting her
lifelong wish to empower
creative people's multifaceted
individual potentials "…because
we need fresh alternative ideas
from every direction...students,
artists, women, and indigenous
people."
Buffy’s
Digital Art
Gallery
Starwalker
Buffy’s
Albums
My Generation: Featuring Buffy Sainte-Marie Final Fantasy & More
The Centre In Vancouver For Performing Arts, Vancouver, BC
Sat, Feb 17, 2007 06:30 PM
Look For Tickets
Additional Information:
Doors open at 6:30pm. Show starts at 7:30pm.
My Generation: A Festival of Power
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Final Fantasy
Jim Byrnes
Kinnie Starr
The Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE 378) is proud to sponsor
My Generation. Music and art are powerful forces in our lives and provide us with a unique
opportunity to celebrate the things that matter the most. Our members work day by day to
help keep BC's energy resources available to British Columbians. We care about our
communities and like everyone else, we want our children to have a bright future.
For more information go to:www.publicpowerbc.ca
Note: Tickets may not be available in all price levels and sections.