But it's not just vocally and lyrically that she was so distinctive. Think about other single female folk acts that you know of from that era and what comes to mind? Simple melodies plucked out on a guitar and basic arrangements about as threatening as the flowers they wore in their hair. At the same time, Buffy was using electronics and overdubs to stretch and distort her voice in the harmonies on songs like "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot," and "The Vampire."
Still, what she was then and remains today, was a fierce advocate for the rights of Native Americans. She was the lone public voice singing about the centuries of mistreatment incurred by the first peoples of North America and probably the first person to use the "G" word, genocide, publicly regarding government policies toward the American and Canadian Indian populations.
Most people's first knowledge about the horrors of Residential schools and blankets infested with small pox, all part of the war that continues to this day against Indians across the continent, came from her songs. (A war that is world wide: Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, Indonesia, Viet-Nam, Japan, Siberia, and anywhere else where there is an indigenous population the story is simply a variation of what happened here.) Instead of on the battle field, the war today is conducted by people behind desks in the offices of multinational corporations and government bureaucracies.
Songs like "Now That The Buffalo's Gone" and "My Country 'Tis Of Thy People You're Dying" spelled out in detail for those willing to listen to the atrocities committed in the name of civilization and progress. She even gives answer to those who would say, "Well they lost the war, what do they expect" by asking why Germany and Japan were left with their land and dignity intact when the Indians of North America weren't when they were defeated?
She didn't just talk about what was wrong in her songs, she also made sure to sing about being proud to be who she was, and for others to take pride in their heritage. "Native North American Child" is a great example of that with it's tongue in cheek chorus of "Sing about your Ebony African Queen, Sing about your lily white Lili Marlene. Beauty by the bushel, but the girl of the hour is a Native North American Child."
Article comments
1 - David Rachlin
This was an excellent article about one of North America's greatest gifts to the world. Buffy Sainte-Marie is a brilliant artist and humantarian whose music and message are timeless.
2 - Bill
Amen. I was lucky enough to see per perform this past June at the Clearwater Festival in NY and she stole the show. She wasn't the closer (Bruce Cockburn and then the Cowboy Junkies played after her) but the audience responded the most loudly and positively to her. She was certainly on top of her game that day.
3 - JT
Jennifer Warnes, not Warrens, Richard Marcus. I hope it was just your typist. Her name should be correctly noted, I would hope, by a journalist who credits her.
4 - President_dudley
Dear Mr. Marcus,
Thanks for this. Ms. Sainte-Marie's work is likely the most under-recognised of any artist i know, and any recognition of her is well regarded.
However, just to quibble, when you say she never recorded "Up Where We Belong": not so.
Go to her website: cluck on Discography. At the bottom you'll find a recording by that name with her recording of that song. It was released only in Canada & UK if i'm right about that, but worth tracking down. For instance, the "God Is Alive" is a fresh, stripped down version not her electronic rendering on "Illuminations".
That said, thanks again, & if you can allow it, here's an mp3 of Buffy's from the 2007 Clearwater Festival of "Up Where We Belong" at Sendspace.
Love lift us up,
dudley
5 - Richard Marcus
Dudley
It's funny you know I had actually got the impression that Buffy had never recorded the song form her when I last saw her in concert in 1995 - she intorduced it by saying she had never done a studio recording of it.
Of couse it was much more interesting in her hands than the schmaltzy version from the movie. Anyway I stand corrected on that and thanks very much for writing in.
As usual my information is a decade out of date.
cheers
Richard Marcus
6 - pieter
Dear Richard, thank you for this great article. Am I allowed to use this on the Tribute Site: Buffy Sainte-Marie, a legend in her own time.
Pieter
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