Buffy Saint Marie is a pretendian

[marred]

I found this documentary to be very interesting about Buffy Saint Marie having fooled everyone until now that she was Native Canadian Indian. I am posting it here because I remember watching her interview about her song Suffer the Little Children on California Son.

She is some nasty piece of work alright. Unf***ingbelieveable!

 

[smiler]

I still love Buffy and I think this investigation is snide. I think it is quite common for a persons origins to be confused and clouded is some secrecy, certainly in the 1940s. Maybe her mother had an affair and things were covered up. What right do we have to know everything. Buffy has, as far as I can see, done a lot of good for the indigenous community. They have adopted her into their community and they say she is one of them. That is good enough for me. Her songs are great and she remains an important voice. There is an obsession with exposing people these days,pulling people down and shaming them. There are better targets out there and terms like Pretendian are ugly and the tone of this documentary is very crass.

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

Very similar thing happened to me. Passed myself off as a native tribesman from Malawi for the best part of a decade before someone I went to school with went to the local paper.

 

[marred]

I still love Buffy and I think this investigation is snide. I think it is quite common for a persons origins to be confused and clouded is some secrecy, certainly in the 1940s. Maybe her mother had an affair and things were covered up. What right do we have to know everything. Buffy has, as far as I can see, done a lot of good for the indigenous community. They have adopted her into their community and they say she is one of them. That is good enough for me. Her songs are great and she remains an important voice. There is an obsession with exposing people these days,pulling people down and shaming them. There are better targets out there and terms like Pretendian are ugly and the tone of this documentary is very crass.

People like you are part of the ruse too. This is why she was able to get away with it for so long, because people prefer to look the other way and enable this bullshit as it serves their virtue.Yes she may done some good for Indians while pretending to be one of them.

 

[The Wild Turkey]

I still love Buffy and I think this investigation is snide. I think it is quite common for a persons origins to be confused and clouded is some secrecy, certainly in the 1940s. Maybe her mother had an affair and things were covered up. What right do we have to know everything. Buffy has, as far as I can see, done a lot of good for the indigenous community. They have adopted her into their community and they say she is one of them. That is good enough for me. Her songs are great and she remains an important voice. There is an obsession with exposing people these days,pulling people down and shaming them. There are better targets out there and terms like Pretendian are ugly and the tone of this documentary is very crass.

Somethin' ain't right with this whole thing.
Buffy sure don't look like she's blood kin to those other people from Massachusetts.
Seems like there were some secrets in that family.

 

[mabuk]

Perhaps she's transracial. Identifying as something in your head that it's physically impossible to be is all the rage, failure to affirm is bigotry.

 

[nicky wire's legs]

We don't call them Indians anymore....

 

[marred]

We don't call them Indians anymore....

I couldn't care less what we call them anymore. She pretended to be one and made a fortune off of it.

 

[marred]

Somethin' ain't right with this whole thing.
Buffy sure don't look like she's blood kin to those other people from Massachusetts.
Seems like there were some secrets in that family.

She's part Italian and probably uses make up to darken her skin.

 

[The Wild Turkey]

She's part Italian and probably uses make up to darken her skin.

Nah, something else is goin' on.

 

[The Wild Turkey]

Statement from Buffy's family members
Debra and Ntawnis Piapot:

"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".

 

[Anonymous]

Reminiscent of “Iron Eyes Cody”.
He had a Sicilian background.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

I couldn't care less what we call them anymore. She pretended to be one and made a fortune off of it.

Well, in part. From the point of view of a driven young artist, to get noticed, to get a foot in the door, desperate situations call for desperate measures. The way I see it is she saw that it helped her earlier in her career, there was the novelty of it, it set her apart from other folk acts, and unfortunately she got trapped in the story she invented and then, sadly, had to live it out.
The reason why I say ‘in part’ is because, I believe, regardless of what she was or wasn’t born, it was her unique voice and writing that won over many people to become fans of hers.
Yes, claiming to be indigenous set her up as an outsider, which I can see as possibly being one of the several reasons why Morrissey and others may have been drawn to her.
Smiler brings up many points I agree with, these are sad times.
As much as I dislike the presentation of the documentary, and until proven otherwise, it seems to be true.

Will this cause me to stop listening to Buffy Sainte Marie? Of course not.

 

[marred]

Well, in part. From the point of view of a driven young artist, to get noticed, to get a foot in the door, desperate situations call for desperate measures. The way I see it is she saw that it helped her earlier in her career, there was the novelty of it, it set her apart from other folk acts, and unfortunately she got trapped in the story she invented and then, sadly, had to live it out.
The reason why I say ‘in part’ is because, I believe, regardless of what she was or wasn’t born, it was her unique voice and writing that won over many people to become fans of hers.
Yes, claiming to be indigenous set her up as an outsider, which I can see as possibly being one of the several reasons why Morrissey and others may have been drawn to her.
Smiler brings up many points I agree with, these are sad times.
As much as I dislike the presentation of the documentary, and until proven otherwise, it seems to be true.

Will this cause me to stop listening to Buffy Sainte Marie? Of course not.

It doesn't bother me if you enjoy her music but I am done with the excuses people make for bad behaviour. She pretended to be something she is not and I find it bizarre that now she's been found to be a fraud in that capacity that her fans are willing to continue the fraud and excuse her behaviour.

What if she had said in the beginning - "I am going to pretend to be a first nations' Indian to help my singing career." Would everyone be just fine with that? I would hope not.

 

[marred]

Statement from Buffy's family members
Debra and Ntawnis Piapot:

"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".

She chose to disown her own family and join another one. That doesn't make her First Nation. Not once has she submitted to an DNA test to prove her ancestry and now we know why.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

It doesn't bother me if you enjoy her music but I am done with the excuses people make for bad behaviour. She pretended to be something she is not and I find it bizarre that now she's been found to be a fraud in that capacity that her fans are willing to continue the fraud and excuse her behaviour.

What if she had said in the beginning - "I am going to pretend to be a first nations' Indian to help my singing career." Would everyone be just fine with that? I would hope not.

It’s complicated. People’s needs. What they need from artists. Maybe it’s true, we want the fantasy they are willing to supply, we want the ‘hero’ the underdog fighting for us because we can’t. We want to believe. Maybe it’s the artist’s job to fulfill this need? to save us from the everyday reality that imposes so many limitations. A form of escapism that inspires one to be a more authentic self, a better self. Eventually we’ll find out, all the great artists to be a damaged lot. I wouldn’t expect anything less.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

She chose to disown her own family and join another one. That doesn't make her First Nation. Not once has she submitted to an DNA test to prove her ancestry and now we know why.

Yes, not biologically, but that doesn’t matter to the Piapot First Nation (Cree) family that has adopted her.

I understand how and why people are upset or even angered by this. Below is another point of view that I think you may agree with …

Somethin' ain't right with this whole thing.
Buffy sure don't look like she's blood kin to those other people from Massachusetts.
Seems like there were some secrets in that family.

Yeah at first I thought the same ….

 

[Orange Crush]

Very similar thing happened to me. Passed myself off as a native tribesman from Malawi for the best part of a decade before someone I went to school with went to the local paper.

You were indeed very convincing as a native tribesmen from Malawi, but it was wrong. I'm sorry I grassed you up to the local paper. Please forgive me.

 

[marred]

It’s complicated. People’s needs. What they need from artists. Maybe it’s true, we want the fantasy they are willing to supply, we want the ‘hero’ the underdog fighting for us because we can’t. We want to believe. Maybe it’s the artist’s job to fulfill this need? to save us from the everyday reality that imposes so many limitations. A form of escapism that inspires one to be a more authentic self, a better self. Eventually we’ll find out, all the great artists to be a damaged lot. I wouldn’t expect anything less.

In reference to your words above, I would say that she saved herself from her everyday reality by living a fantasy that she "supplied" that has now caught up with her. She wasn't happy being a white woman born in Massachusetts so she created herself in the image of a First Nations' Indian born in Canada that people were apparently too afraid to pull the thread on and to this very day aren't ready to accept. That's the thing with lying, if you do it well people will go along for the ride.

I was never a fan of her music and only heard of her since California Son so I am coming into this completely objectively with no blow to my adoration like some I am seeing. I saw people make excuses for Lance Armstrong when he was found out too which I found completely bizarre.

Regardless of our differing opinions I appreciate the discourse

 

[nicky wire's legs]

I couldn't care less what we call them anymore. She pretended to be one and made a fortune off of it.

well youre the one who wont even give them the dignity of being called by an actually relevant name, rather than a completely erroneous name belonging to other peoples who have no relation whatsoever to native americans. the only reason why that name has stuck for so long is because--like you-- nobody cared enough that it didnt represent in any way shape or form the people to whom it was applied. that's as good as a denial of their rightful identity right there.

i used to work with native american artists and if you're invited to their longhouses, their potlucks, their pow wows, you're as good as being a member of their tribe. to them what matters is culture and shared experience, not race.