Brian T

Not sure if this will be of much interest here, or how familiar folks here are with her (although I'm sure most have heard Up Where We Belong at least a couple of times), but our CBC News did a remarkable deep dive into the origins of legendary indigenous singer-songwriter, artist, educator and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie and discovered that she's the legitimate daughter of the Italian-American parents from Massachusetts she always claimed adopted her from a reservation in up here in Saskatchewan. The 'pretendian' term in the title is an actual thing, and a number of prominent Canadians have already been outed in recent years for faking indigenous heritage for personal gain and or fame, but this is probably the most prominent example yet.

It's a pretty solid read:
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/...y-sainte-marie

And some followup comments from members of her reserve, and other indigenous Canadians:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...apot-1.7011149

Coral

Heard about this and the things I've read point out that her ancestry seems to have been in doubt for a long time. She contradicted herself a few times and others have disputed her claims.

Based on pictures of when she was young, I can easily see how she could pass as a person of Italian descent. Oddly, how she looked in the 80s and later I would bet my life she was indigenous - even if I had no idea who she was and she wasn't in her indigenous attire/style.

Normally I wouldn't think much of this, but her whole career, persona and messaging is based on her being indigenous. Assuming it wasn't an honest mistake, it's pretty scummy of her.