Buffy Sainte-Marie biography and career timeline | American Masters | PBS
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Buffy Sainte-Marie biography and career timeline

[Editor’s Note – November 3, 2023: Recent investigative reports have sought to raise questions about Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous heritage. Sainte-Marie has stated that she is uncertain of her biological heritage and affirms her formal adoption into and identification with the Cree nation.]

An Oscar-winning Indigenous artist who rose to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene, Buffy Sainte-Marie has had a six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator and artist. This timeline explores Sainte-Marie’s life and the major milestones in her career.

1941

Born on a Plains Cree First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan, Buffy Sainte-Marie was adopted as an infant and raised in Maine and Massachusetts.

1941
1944

Sainte-Marie begins showing an interest in music and starts playing the piano at the age of 3.

1944
1963

Sainte-Marie graduated with honors from the University of Massachusetts, and then moved to New York where she started playing the coffeehouse folk music scene alongside other Canadian icons.

1963
PHOTO: GBRC37 Buffy Sainte-Marie at the Gaslight Cafe, 1964
1963

That same year, she wrote the anti-war protest anthem Universal Soldier and was already performing it in coffeehouses, but was banned from singing it on the radio and TV until 1965.

1963
1964

Sainte-Marie's First Album

Her debut album releases, "It’s My Way!" Sainte-Marie was named "Best New Artist" by Billboard Magazine.

1964
1965

Released "Many A Mile."

1965
PHOTO: GBRCB9 Buffy Sainte-Marie on the subway in New York City, September 21, 1964.
1966

Released "Little Wheel Spin And Spin."

1966
1967

Released "Fire & Fleet & Candlelight."

1967
1968

She guest starred on NBC’s "The Virginian," where she only agreed to do so after requesting all Indian roles be played by Native Americans.

1968
PHOTO: 2HPFF9D Buffy Sainte-Marie Circa 1980's Credit: Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch
1968

Released "I’m Gonna Be A Country Girl Again."

1968
1969
An Electronic Pioneer

An Electronic Pioneer

She released her album Illuminations, which is considered to be a groundbreaking work of early electronic music.

1969
1969

She created the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an ongoing effort to teach native children core subjects like science from an indigenous perspective. Cradleboard was a spinoff of the Nihewan Foundation for Native American Education, which she founded in 1969.

1969
1969

She appears on the Johnny Cash Show where they sing "Custer," a ballad about General George Custer who led his men to death in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

1969
1960s-1970s

She suspects her music is being blacklisted from US radio due to strong environmental and indigenous rights messaging.

1960s-1970s
PHOTO: Buffy Sainte-Marie at the Hotel Albert in NYC, 1964
1970

Released "The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie."

1970
1971

Released "She Used To Wanna Be A Ballerina" and "The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Vol. 2."

1971
1972

Elvis records “Until It’s Time for You to Go” written by Buffy Sainte-Marie.

1972
1973

Released "Quiet Places."

1973
PHOTO: 2JJEA4F BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE Canadian singer in July 1965. Photo: Tony Gale
1974

Released "Buffy" and "Native North American Child."

1974
1975

Released "Changing Woman."

1975
1976

Released "Sweet America." Her son was born and she quit recording after releasing 15 albums and became a regular on "Sesame Street" between 1976 and 1981.

1976
1977

Sainte-Marie Marks a Television Milestone

She breastfed her son on "Sesame Street," one of the first times breastfeeding was depicted on TV.

1977
1978

Sainte-Marie lent support alongside Muhammad Ali for the Longest Walk in support of American-Indian rights.

1978
1979

She was featured on a Supersisters trading card used to celebrate famous women.

1979
1982

The First Indigenous Oscar Winner

She won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for co-writing the song “Up Where We Belong,” used in the 1982 romantic drama "An Officer and a Gentleman" and sung by Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker.

1982
1984

She starts recording music and making art on a Macintosh computer.

1984
1992

Released "Coincidence and Likely Stories."

1992
1993

She acted in the TV movie "The Broken Chain" with Pierce Brosnan.

1993
1995

Sainte-Marie was Inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

1995
1996

Won a Genie for her 1996 TV special "Buffy Sainte-Marie: Up Where We Belong."

1996
2009

Released "Running for the Drum" and was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

2009
2010

Sainte-Marie was awarded a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 2010.

2010
2015

Released "Power In the Blood." "Power in the Blood" won the Polaris Music Prize and received three 2016 JUNO nominations.

2015
2017

Released "Medicine Songs" and collaborates with Tanya Tagaq on “You Got to Run.”

2017
2018

Andrea Warner writes an authorized biography of Buffy Sainte-Marie with a foreword by Joni Mitchell.

2018
2020

She published her first children's book about pet adoption, "Hey Little Rockabye."

2020
2020

Won the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize awarded to her debut album It’s My Way, for impact and cultural relevance decades after its release.

2020
2022

Publishes her children’s books "Tâpwê and the Magic Hat" "Still this Love Goes On."

2022
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