Buffy Saint-Marie is accused of faking Indigenous heritage: Birth certificate suggests she was born in Massachusetts and not on Indian reservation in Canada

Canadian singer Buffy Saint-Marie has been accused of faking her Indigenous heritage in a bombshell feature by the CBC which claims she was born in Massachusetts to a white family and not, as she claimed, on an Indian reservation. 

Saint-Marie, 82, has been a folk music icon and Indigenous success story in Canada since she found fame in the 1970s. 

She has always described herself as belonging to the Cree tribe, and says she was adopted as a child by a white family as part of the infamous Sixties Scoop, when Indigenous children in Canada were removed from their families and adopted by white parents. 

But now, members of her family are claiming to CBC that she is lying. 

CBC also claims to have unearthed a birth certificate that traces her roots to Massachusetts, where she grew up. 

She has always maintained that she was born on the Piapot First Nation reservati on near Regina in Saskatchewan then adopted by Massachusetts couple, Albert and Winifred Santamari. 

She says she rediscovered her native ancestry later in life and was accepted into the community. 

In a Facebook video published this week after CBC's report, Saint-Marie doubled down on her heritage, insisting she is a 'proud' member of the native community' and claiming her adoptive mother gave her reason to believe she was Indigenous.  

She refers to the Piapot First Nation as her 'chosen family.' 

'They took me in as an adult and claimed me as their own. This has been and always will be my truth. 

'There are those who want to question me...for 60 years I have been sharing my story as I know it. I'm an artist, an activist, a mom, a survivor, and a proud member of the native community with deep roots in Canada.  

'There are also many things I don't know which I have always been honest about. I don't know where I'm from, where my birth parents are, or how I ended up a misfit in a typical, white, Christian, New England town. 

'I realized decades ago I'd never have the answers to these questions,' she said. 

The CBC article suggests that her story has changed many times over the years when it comes to where she is from. 

Saint-Marie's niece Heidi - the daughter of Saint-Marie's older brother Alan, says: 'She wasn’t born in Canada.… she’s clearly born in the United States. 

'She’s clearly not Indigenous or Native American.'