Buffy Sainte-Marie Returns Order of Canada Honor ‘With a Good Heart,’ Says She Never Claimed to Be Canadian

Singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, whose purported Indigenous lineage has been called into question, says she has returned her Order of Canada “with a good heart” and restated that she never claimed to be Canadian.

In her first comment since she was stripped of the award in February, Sainte-Marie, 84, said that she is an American citizen and holds a U.S. passport, but was adopted as a young adult by a Cree family in Saskatchewan, according to the Canadian Press.

She said that she “made it completely clear” she was not Canadian to government representatives and to former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau when he asked her to perform for Queen Elizabeth in 1977.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the singer expressed her “love and gratitude to Canada” and said she is “overwhelmingly grateful that I’ve been able to make my contribution.”

“It was very lovely to host the medals for awhile, but I return them with a good heart,” she wrote, adding that she’s “lived with uncertainty” about her parentage and unsuccessfully explored the possibility that she was born in Canada.

An Oscar-winning songwriter and Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee, Saint-Marie has for decades been associated with the struggles of Native Americans and is known for the anti-war song “Universal Soldier” and stolen-land lament “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone.” She was officially stripped of the prestigious Order of Canada appointment, the country’s highest honor presented to a civilian, in January.

“Notice is hereby given that the appointment of Buffy Sainte-Marie to the Order of Canada was terminated by Ordinance signed by the Governor General [Mary Simon] on January 3, 2025.” The notice was given by Ken MacKillop, Secretary General of the Order of Canada.

No specific reason for the termination was stated, but an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Fifth Estate” show, published on Oct. 27, 2023 and now viewed on YouTube 1.5 million times, alleges that Sainte-Marie fabricated her Indigeneity, and presented a birth certificate shown on camera listing Stoneham, Mass. as her place of birth, “color of race” as “white,” and birth name as Beverly Jean Santamaria.

Saint-Marie has spent six decades as a musician and activist, releasing 16 studio albums whose songs often address war and Indigenous rights. Her latest was 2017’s “Medicine Songs,” containing new and re-recordings of older material.

Biographical information supplied by her team over the years states that she was born on the Piapot Cree First Nations Reserve in Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan. Her 2018 authorized biography also states she was likely born Cree, while her website once said that she is “believed to have been born in 1941 on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan and taken from her biological parents when she was an infant.”