Buffy Sainte-Marie
Canadian-born American singer-songwriter, guitarist, political activist, and visual artist known especially for her use of music to promote awareness of issues affecting Native Americans. Orphaned as an infant in Canada when her mother, a Plains Cree, died in an auto accident, Sainte-Marie was adopted by an U.S. couple of Mi’kmaq ancestry and raised in Massachusetts & Maine. Her earliest days as a self-taught folk singer were spent shaking up the coffeehouses and consciousnesses in Greenwich Village and helping Joni Mitchell get discovered. Along with her lifelong commitment to and advocacy for Indigenous and Aboriginal people around the world, she has changed the education system from within, and maintained an unwavering passion for social justice, equality and the Earth mixed with her love of sound and songs. Her legacy is that of as an ever-curious, ever-evolving, and technologically pioneering musician, producer, composer and artist — despite her inability to read a note of music.
Acting
TV
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
1962
TV
Top of the Pops
as Self
1964
TV
The Virginian
as Nai'Be
1962
TV
Austin City Limits
as Self
1975
Movie
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
as Self
2017
Movie
Festival
as Self
1967
TV
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
as The Spirit (voice)
1995
Movie
Broken Rainbow
as Translator's Voice (voice)
1985
TV
The Merv Griffin Show
as Self
1962
Movie
Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation
as Self
2013
Movie
The Broken Chain
as Gesina 'Grandmother' / Seth's Wife
1993
TV
Kraft Music Hall
as Self
1958
TV
The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
as Self
1969
TV
Then Came Bronson
as Tender Grass
1969
TV
Dinah!
as Self
1974
Movie
Saint Misbehavin': The Wavy Gravy Movie
as Self
2010
Movie
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On
as Self
2022
Movie
Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble
as Self
2020
Movie
Buffy
as Self
2010
Movie
Making a Noise: A Native American Musical Journey with Robbie Robertson
as Self - Cree (archive footage)
1999
Movie
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Up Where We Belong
as Main Artist
1996
Movie
Uranium
as Self - Narrator (voice)
1990
Movie
As Long as the Rivers Run
as Self
1971
Movie
Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life
as Self
2006
