The impact of allegations about Buffy Sainte-Marie's indigeneity continues | APTN News 

Her state of Massachusetts, birth certificate is on her Wikipedia page. It is a sequential birth certificate, and is signed by the doctor present at her birth. Her relatives have been refuting her false claims of being indigenous for years. If she really wants to prove her claims of indigenous ancestry she would take a DNA test.

as an First Nations Artist, This is completely wrong, she deserves to be stripped of everything, who cares who adopted her.

Just because the truth hurts, doesn't make it wrong. I'm sick of living in a post-truth world where facts are 'offensive.'

A paternal DNA would clear this up. The fact that she hasn’t done this is very telling.

As an indigenous person I do not understand why any person would defend Buffy's lies. I suspect that more people in Canada knew the truth but they didn''t want to rock the boat against a celebrity.

The 60s scoop started in 1951. Buffy St Marie was born in 1941. There is no birth document anywhere in Canada, or indeed any person stepping up in Canada to say that Buffy was born in Canada. She is not Canadian, does not belong to any band, and she has to pay full taxes on goods like any other White person. Neither do any adoption documents exist. Being informally adopted by a family later in life does not change her birth. Let's face it, some people simply don't want to accept the facts in this case. There is a valid birth certificate for Buffy in Stoneham Mass. giving her date and place of birth and St. Marie parents' names. It is valid. Buffy St. Marie is an American citizen based on that document. Further her St. Marie relatives who she grew up with say she is a St. Marie, and they never heard anything about her being adopted. Her uncle and brother did go to the press to try to challenge the lie and tell the truth, but she silenced her brother with threats of legal action. Buffy's Indigenous heritage is entirely her own creation. It's time to accept that and move on. In future for any award, scholarship, academic or other job, based on race, people will have to be properly vetted before taking advantage of alleged Indigenous background. There are too many PretendIndians around these days benefitting from grants etc. They often speak for Indigenous people when they have no right to do so, neither by birth nor by growing up on a Reserve.

BS. she made a mockery of our ( not her) trauma. She should be apologizing to all of us for dressing up in both dress, song and history.

Why does anyone need to be consulted when investigating fraudulent claims to an Indigenous identity? There is a name for people like Buffy Sainte Marie, "Pretendians."

The handwritten letter she sent her brother years ago, threatening to claim that he molested her as a child if he continued to tell people of her real origin, which accompanied a less spiteful but nonetheless intimidating letter from her fancy California lawyers, says it all. Why would she threaten her brother if what he said wasn't true?

They're not allegations, they're stone cold facts. It's astounding she intimidated people her whole professional life into keeping her lie. And she was born 10 years before the scoop.

No indigenous experts consulted? Did this woman not watch the documentary?

These folks should be angry at Buffy and not the truth tellers. Buffy is the one that owes the apology ESPECIALLY to the people who to endure the pain of having this all brought up all over again

Could we just spare a thought for her parents, especially her mother who had to endure silently all these years? They were the original people to suffer. To love, support and raise a child and then be publicly rejected is sad and cruel. Buffy Sainte-Marie is the person to blame. Truth telling is important no matter who is telling it.

A DNA profile is needed I cant believe she attacked, disowned her family.

The Truth portion of Truth and Reconciliation is a bitter pill for some. You can't handpick the truths you want to be true, and you cannot NOT report on it.

So claiming to be indigenous seems to have given her a life of "privilege".

Truth journalism does not need permission or editing from groups with a bias, that would be what folks describe as insane

I don't understand why the spokeswoman feels she and her community needed to be "consulted" about the Buffy situation. The story was about Buffy's grift, not the scoop survivors. They should be happy that a liar was unmasked. She was just grifting off y'all.

The show did talk about adoption, her birth certificate included 2 sheets with matching numbers and the signature of an attending doctor (present only during live birth), therefore she was not adopted, she had a live birth. Plus, she was born in the 40’s, before the scoop. A DNA test would solve it, and her refusing to do so, will also solve it 🤷🏻‍♀️ And….. a First Nations person is the person who brought her concerns about Buffy to the media.

Does the lady from Victoria not know what happens to birth certificates when a child is adopted? The original birth certificate is filed away/sealed and an amended birth certificate is issued. The amended birth certificate has the adoptive parents names BECAUSE those people are now legally the child's parents. The original b/c still exists and that's how adoptees are finding their birth parents (well, the records and dna testing) in places where the records have been opened (all of Canada, I believe). In the 1940's crossing the border between Canada and the US was recorded and that data base is available on Ancestry - btw, no record of the Santamaria/ Sainte Marie / St. Marie family crossing the border. Continually saying records were destroyed, records don't exist, etc doesn't negate the fact that a birth certificate exists in Stoneham, Massachusetts. It was Buffy herself who brought up the '60's Scoop, although she called it the Big Scoop; it's Buffy herself who has said she has no birth certificate; it's Buffy herself who claims records are sealed (nope, they're not). As far as the Piapot community not being given a "heads up" - why didn't Buffy give them the heads up? She certainly knew it was happening (or she wouldn't have released her statement the day before, would she?). Why does the CBC owe anyone an apology for investigating this issue? If Buffy is not who she claims to be, be angry with her. Maybe feel some empathy for the family & community (Italian) she continues to deny. It's not okay to say she's been claimed therefore it's all good, move on, drop it etc without addressing that for one community to gain a member, another community lost one.

Independent DNA testing is the only course to clear her now. The scoop started in 1951, "Buffy" would have been about 10 years of age. The Santamaria family showed video's of "Buffy" and she appeared a lot younger than 10. What about her allegations and threats against her own brother to keep quiet?!! You make it sound like CBC's Fifth Estate consulted no one other than those who agree with your stance. That is not true either. There was an Aboriginal Professor and a Metis lawyer on CBC's Fifth Estate talking about Pretendians. From what i saw on the program it is a lot more than just "allegations" at this point. If she was born in Saskatchewan, why are there no records to be found? As the show claimed, she has made multiple statements over the years that don't seem to be backed up with a shred of evidence or truth for that matter. She has claimed not having a Birth Certificate, yet they had no problem getting hers from the Town of Stoneham, Massachusetts---Beverley Jean Santamaria who somehow transformed herself into Buffy Sainte-Marie!!! Change of name also has to be done legally. What about that?! Seems to me an APTN Investigates is in order.

This is the problem with activist organizations as a whole, they are more interested in feelings than facts which skews all the data. We need to seek and honor Truth in order to have Reconciliation. Buffy let us down. What I cannot get passed is the fact this birth certificate was so easily found. Did she ever really search for it at all or was she content just rolling with the story as concocted? And just because she is accepted as a member of community does not make her indigenous, this again skews the data.

To portray herself as Indigenous all these years, she deserves an Oscar!!

The reality of her lies is a horrible thing to discover. Specifically the claim of being caught up in the Sixties Scoop is very painful for me. I was taken from my family due to a lie of abuse against my father. Because of the irrational and illegal behaviours of a social worker who didn't care to investigate properly, motivated by a furor to remove a child from a home where abuse was being claimed I was taken and put in foster care. My parents had to fight so hard to get me back and they were the lucky ones. I was a lucky one. I did go home but the damage was done. It damaged my entire family. I was taken and I am not Indigenous. So many Indigenous children had been removed from their families and will never return and the ones that were returned are damaged and changed forever in ways even I cannot comprehend. I am shocked and saddened and my heart as always goes out to Indigenous People who are healing from the wounds inflicted against them.

why on gosh earth would anyone from the 60's scoop NEED to be consulted in the 5th estate episode? Honestly, the truth is right there in the files in the US, that little town 20km north of Boston...she is NOT Canadian, she is NOT indigenous, and the article had NOTHING to do with the 60's scoop...the show NEVER once indicated anything about the terrible time in our history was false...it showcased that the lies that Buffy has told for over 6 decades was allowed to grow, live, and even when the truth was highlighted all those years ago, it was allowed to silenced...which is exactly what we DONT want to tolerate any longer.

Nothing excuses the fact that she pretended to be Indigenous and had created a whole career for years based on that “fact”. She was claiming to be native long before she was adopted by the Cree’s. Spray tan. Dyed hair. The way she dresses. Even the way she sang were all red flags. I’ve been raised on a reservation and I don’t know a single person that wears feathers or chants outside of a ceremony. There are a lot of elders in my community who already knew she was not born Indigenous. No one knows each others business more than a native, take my word for it. Also using her lawyers against her own father and birth family… I don’t even want to go there it’s so disturbing. She’s now using her lawyers to try to get Fifth Estate episode taken down as well… I think what bothers me the most is the clip she put out the night before the Fifth Estate episode dropped. Anyone who’s taken 1 acting class knows that video was not only rehearsed and read from a teleprompter but it was a performance. Clearly the biggest award she never received was for her acting ability.

She was born in 1941, how was she adopted in the 1960s scoop. She would have been minimally 10 years old , & up to 19 years old. She's a liar.

60s scoop, she was born in 1941. I get the show didn't go into indigenous issues that are very important. But the doc wasn't about that, it was about a white person that coopted their experiences. I think she's quite convincing and feel sorry for her actual family which she silenced. Particularly her brother who was threatened with her claiming to expose him as an SA perpetrator, just because he challenged her cliams to be Cree. Why doesn't she just do a DNA test and get her family to teat as well. There aeems too much evidence against her claims. I can imagine the shock for indigenous people, but this is surely not okay with them.

A DNA test would solve this. But I highly doubt she would do it.

Claim. The birth certificate proves she is Betty Santa Maria. Born and grew up in the states. It’s in the record. Altered documents is a side issue to the facts in the record.

2:05 This narrative that the birth certificate isn't the original has gotten absurd. As the Massachusetts record keeper stated: (1) Buffy's birth certificate is in a numbered sequence of deliveries by the same doctor, at the same hospital, and that doctor also delivered all her white brothers and sisters, (2) The birth date on the certificate is1941, a full decade before the Scoop started in 1951, and (3) as the Massachusetts record keeper stated, if Buffy was adopted out of Canada, there would be adoption records & a record of immigration in her file. And a bonus (4) she claimed over her life to be Algonquin, Mi'kmaq, and Cree, all by blood, on opposite sides of the country. If you want to deny one of these 4 points, then okay? But to deny them all is insane. And all of this is moot anyway: Buffy herself has now LITERALLY said she wasn't scooped, has now LITERALLY said she is not Piapot by blood. She abandoned her old narrative as the CBC piece approached, so why are these people still clinging to it? Listen to Buffy herself two weeks ago, calling what this APTN guest is propagating an "urban legend": "I’m always trying to clarify the urban legend stories because some of them are just not true and others are confusing. I think there’s been confusion regarding my Piapot adoption, for instance. I was adopted into the Piapot family - not I was adopted out of Piapot Reserve.” - BSM on the Terry David Mulligan Podcast, Oct. 14, 2023

Fifth Estate investigated and they uncovered her birth certificate and it was shown; she was born in Mass. to white Italian parents. Im indigenous and it is hurtful to me and to our people. Taking away from our people's again like colonialism again 😢😢😢

Facts don’t care about your feelings

It's hard to let go of a hero. But look at all the evidence that was presented and it sure looks like a giant scam has ben conducted.

It's no longer appropriate to say she "may" not have been adopted. She wasn't. Her sister's DNA is related to her son's DNA. Case closed.

How can you call her a 60s scoop adoptee when she was born in 1941, me who has a father that was was part of the 60s scoop this saddens me to the core that she’s is being defended by my own people. She is an American Italian. Not hard to tell and American Italian women can pass extremely easy as a First Nations person.

You actually cannot change an original birth certificate

These people assume that only non natives and non 60s scoop and non adoptees worked on this expose because it aired on Firth Estate - on the contrary, they just don't want the public to know because of the backlash. Also as explained, Buffy was born in to her "adopted" mother in Massachusetts and that's found in local documents not just her birth certificate. ALSO she's genetically related to her cousin, her son and her cousin match on Ancestry DNA. There were many people consulted on this and its ridiculous that they assume otherwise. This has been decades in the making. ALSO Kim Tallbear and many Indigenous people lead this!!

whenever I saw Buffy she reminded me of my friends UNCLE VINNIE from ITALY

23 and Me and Buffy Sainte Marie!

She needs to apologize to the world as a fraud, her awards takin back. She's mental and should be charged.

60's scoop ? she was born in 41?

Thats messed up and disrespectful to the Native Community. Especially after all they been through including their ancestors..

Truth is truth. Harm comes when running from it.

As a individual, I feel very betrayed, I go walking every morning, I listen to a lot of First Nations singers, including Bluffy … to keep me motivated and walk a little faster…I’m 71, what a betrayal! I feel for all the families she violated. Let alone Canada and USA, someone said she should win a Oscar…indeed

It's obvious Buffy was not adopted.......She is the spitting image of her birth mother Winnifred Santa Maria. Her cousin Heidi's DNA also matched Buffy's daughter which could not have happened if she was adopted.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive… liar, liar pants on fire…

Her career was falling so she jumped into being a First Nation and her career took off. We’ve been packing her all these years, she’s heavy!

All the bleeding hearts will come out now a liar is a liar

Give her 2018 Juno award to Kelly Fraser, a talented Inuk musician who tragically is no longer here, after her award was stolen by this woman

Yes, it truly is shocking and I can understand people being confused and sad. But the investigation wasn't shoddy and seems convincing based on legal documents like the birth certificate and the history that was pieced together. As in so many "pretendindian" cases, BSM's own family denies that she was adopted or that they have any Native ancestry. I don't understand why some people feel that the potential impact of the story on Native people who were adopted should be as important than the focus on BSM. Her fraud doesn't invalidate or minimize their experiences.

Truth must always be embraced rather than feelings.

Imposter and an embarrassment to her actual country. Insidious and evil woman to suggest the things she did towards her brother to hide her true colors. Disgusting and should be boycotted into retirement.

I understand she won many awards deemed to go to 'true' indigenous artists. Those awards certainly could have helped others project their career. Wil she be asked to return those awards now? Although I don't think she did a disservice to the indigenous community, it is all based on a BIG lie. It's one thing to support a community, but to pretend to be someone you're not to gain something, and for so long, is definitely not going to go over well in this cancel culture we have in the world today.

She has made a mockery of The Order of Canada!

They aren’t allegations if they,re true! Her real family is there to show and tell about her real story and it ain’t pretty. I,ve always had a feeling that she wasn’t legit at all. Ever since I first saw her when I was a child with my class.

She needs to be held accountable and embrace her Italian heritage

Thinking all the grants, awards & titles she took under fraudulent identity taking away from perhaps more deserving and legitimate indigenous peoples who are Canadian. As a Canadian I supported her and now I feel betrayed

As a Mexican I can tell who has indigenous ancestry just by sight and I always found her face not very Native American to me, but I loved her music so I didn't cared. Now I feel disappointed and sad. She was like a flag to me, thank you for all you did for Native Americans, but I don't think I'll see you as before.

First rule of the con, NEVER STOP THE CON.

She's born in the 40"s. How are people offended she was caught being a liar.

Sending love, rage, and solidarity to all 60s scoop survivors and Indigenous friends, neighbours and colleagues

She was a member of the "talks with hands" band.

I'm Tlingitit from Alaska. There are also Tlingit-Haida Indians in B.C, & I'm more familiar with the U.S system, but I'd like to think that indigenous people in both the U.S & Canada would rather not consign ourselves to ignorance regarding a 60-year fraud perpetrated against our people. Members of a group representing Canadian '60s scoop survivors don't speak for all Natives.

Buffy should get a lifetime Oscar for her 60 year acting performance

Delusional. Be mad at the person who lied; not the TRUTH TELLERS. Pretendians harm natives! Thank you to the Saint Marie family who tried to tell the truth!

Bluffy isn't Canadian, Cree or adopted. All according to her family, they should know.

Order of Canada Awarded on: April 17, 1997 Invested on: May 07, 1998 Born of Cree parents on the Piapot Reserve in Saskatchewan, she is a musician of international stature... The Order of Canada should be revoked from this American born Italian decent woman. There are so many Canadian Aborginal Women deserving of the Order of Canada, and its not her.

Genetic Ancestry testing DNA A family line research is needed, hair (real hair) and cheek swab. Compare with the Niece and her Brother calling her their Sister and Aunt.

I’m furious not sad she should give all her money to our First Nations children.

She needs to be charged... and made example of... to stop others

Bluffy Fake Marie

By discounting the birth certificate as a common by-product of a supposed adoption, it appears that either Ms. Strongwind either hasn't actually seen the Fifth Estate story on BSM or is displaying the denial stage of grieving. The documentary provided clear evidence that it was not a post-adoption creation. The county in which BSM was born writes sequential numbers on the certificates for that year as they are processed. If we are to believe that this was a post-adoption certificate that likely would have been ordered by a judge sometime after BSM's birth, then that means that the county clerk's office would have had to go back and hand alter the numbering of every child born after her that year to make her certificate fall in the right the chronological order of her date of birth. It also seems unlikely, for an adoption related birth certificate, that clerk's office would go to the trouble of having the mother's doctor falsely attest on the legal document to have witnessed BSM's live birth.

It's 2023. If St Marie or Santa Maria wants to prove her case, she just does a DNA test. Well, Buffy???

Ahahahahahaha! Hey a great act is a great act! If she's busted on it today, then that Oscar was well deserved.

Throwing your family under the bus is one thing. But threatening your father and brother with false allegations of sexual misconduct in order to keep them quiet is another. What a terrible person.

Buffy was born in the America. She isn't Canadian, nor native.

Did this woman even watch the documentary?

Buffy is the one that should apologize and give back awards...

I watched the documentary about St. Marie. There was no hint that the 60's scoop did not occur. It was about the individual woman. They made it clear that St Marie was claiming something she had no right to NOT about the validation of everyone. They also brought receipts. People, there have always been scam artists. That does NOT mean everyone is. Furthermore what about her brother's rights? She made serious always worth zero proof.

I wonder, why her parents kept silent about her "origin", if her claims being adopted were not true. Many couples have secrets their kids dont know about.

This person is totally wrong. Buffy's marriage certificate is on file and gives her biological parents names and her true birth place as Massachusetts. Her sister's birth certificate is on file at the same office. The same Dr. delivered her sister as delivered her. Buffy said on Merv Griffin's late night show that she was raised by some good folks in Maine. She appeared on that show when she was married to her 1st husband Dewayne Bugbee.I made an audio cassette of that show.

I’m very hurt as being adopted out to Ohio by children’s aid society in Wpg from the sixty scoop.She should apologize that hurts us a lot. What next is she gunna say she is residential school survivor and hurt more Indigenous people.

Buffy apologize to the Indigenous please. It's the right thing to do. Hey, I watched those episodes on Sesame Street when I was a small child and I looked up to her.

She as born in 1941, so how could she get "caught up in the '60's scoop?"

Did she ever identify as an Italian? Think about it!.

No disrespect to 60s Scoop adoptees, but pointing out falsehoods in BSM's claims is not really about them. Pain and resentment for what happened to said adoptess is real and valid. But does not give them any more authority in this case than anyone else.

She used the story of the 60 scoop people to her own benefit.

It’s simple, she’s a liar!

I am half Indigenous. I know of her seen a couple performances on t.v. but I never was much invested in her. The truth should come out.

Why don't she just submit dna to clear her name?

Why not DNA ?

Buffys family were threatened in the most grievous way.Especially if her claims are untrue. Can you imagine what threats Buffy would have made to the investigators? The only thing in this world that is unalterable is THE REAL TRUTH. Sad that it should end this way. She was so good she would have made it just as she is with no frills and pretentions.

Please take all of her indigenous honours away from her. Please. Absolute betrayal.

Cant DNA prove the lean of her heritage? If someone is challenging my heritage I would have sign up for a DNA test yesterday

The 60's scoop was so deep it went all the way back to the 40's. So she was 60's scooped at 20ish yrs old. Give it up and do the dna test. I had to jump through so many hoops to show my sons status. Dna test settled it all.

There's no "my truth" or "our truth," there's just "truth" - which in this case is an Italian American who spent 60 years wearing a costume and makeup.

The only mention I heard in the documentary about the 60's scoop is that Sainte Marie wasn't scooped.

Definitely birth documents are not always accurate. However, the documentary I saw on this situation sited Buffy's own statements over the years and how they changed......sighting different tribes of ancestry and changing inconsistency. This is a big problem. One can certainly be confused about ancestry for many reasons, but these statements she made herself were too contradictory. and often too vague. This whole thing is really, really sad. If she is who she claims to be, she needs to make a clear and consistent statement.

I disagree. I'm a native american & am very angry that Bluffy continues to stand by her lies and has won awards based on those lies. The Fifth Estate wasn't investigating "the 60s scoop," it was investigating Buffy St. Marie's claims of indigenous ancestry & I believe they got it right. She was born in MA to Italian parents and grew up there, went to school in MA and had siblings. She even threatened her brother that she would scream sexual abuse if he didn't stop talking about their real ancestry.