The legendary singer Buffy Sainte-Marie is sensational stripped of her Honors title after she reportedly 'lies over her heritage'.
The 83-year-old Oscar-winning singer is stripped of her prestigious Order of Canada after explosive claims that she made up her native heritage.
The order of Canada – donated more than 7,600 people since 1967 – is the highest recognition for 'extraordinary contributions to the nation'.
The star, who won an Academy Award for co-writing 'Up Where We Hours', had awarded the Order of Canada for its supposed work for native goals in 1997.
The decision, quietly published in Canada Gazette on Saturday comes after the shocking investigation of 2023 has shown that the singer may have built up her entire career on deception.
A notification from the Secretary General of the Order of Canada, Ken Mackillop, is: 'Remark is stated here that the appointment of Buffy Sainte-Marie was terminated by the Regulation signed by the Governor General [Mary Simon] on January 3, 2025. '
The notification did not give a clear reason why the Sainte-Marie prize was stripped.
The singer, who became famous with her anti-war song 'Universal Soldier' ​​and 'Now the Buffalo is gone', previously told genuine stories about having Mi'kmaq heritage herd by her adoptive mother.
The legendary Canadian singer Buffy Sainte-Marie is sensational stripped of her highest title after she reportedly 'lies over her heritage'
But Canadian Broadcasting Corporation exposed the birth certificate of the singer, which showed that she was actually Beverly Jean Santamaria born to white parents in Massachusetts – not the Cree woman of Saskatchewan's Piapot First Nation that she had claimed since the 1960s.
Sainte-Marie, however, has denied those allegations and rejected claims that she had forced her indigenous heritage and had insisted on the investigation into her origins, included 'manufactured' evidence.
“My growing mother, who was proud to participate in Mi'kmaq, told me many things, including that I was adopted and that I was native,” said Sainte-Marie.
'And later in life, as an adult, she also told me a few things that I never shared out of respect for her. That I now hate sharing, including that I may have been born on the wrong side of the blanket. '
Sainte-Marie claimed that the network was dependent on manufactured accounts from her brother Alan, who says she has sexually abused her, and two alienated relatives she doesn't know.
“This is incredibly reumatic for me and unfair for all involved,” she said.
Sainte-Marie has denied those allegations, rejected claims that she had forced her indigenous heritage and had insisted on the investigation into her origins, included 'manufactured' evidence
“It hurts me deeply to discover that my alienated family grew up afraid of me and thought that these lies because of a letter I sent, meant to protect me against further abuse of my brother.”
Sainte-Marie has always described herself as belonging to the Cree-Stam and says that she was adopted by a white family as a child as part of the notorious sixties, when indigenous children in Canada were removed from their families and were adopted by white parents .
She is a folk music icon and native success story in Canada since she found fame in the 1970s. But members of her family claimed to CBC that she is lying.
CBC also claims to have dug up a birth certificate that traces her roots to Massachusetts, where she grew up.
Sainte-Marie, however, has insisted that she has never seen this birth certificate before and does not know these family members.
“I never lied about my identity. The more I have known, the more I have put together a self -feeling of what information has been available to me, “she said.
'What I know about my indigenous descent that I learned from my growing mother, who was Mi'kmaq her heritage, and my own research later in life.
'My mother told me that I was adopted and that I was native, but there was no documentation as was common for native children at the time.
Sainte-Marie is a folk music icon and native success story in Canada since she found fame in the 1970s. But members of her family claimed to CBC that she is lying
The 83-year-old Oscar-winning singer is stripped of her prestigious Order of Canada after explosive claims she made up her native heritage
'For decades I tried to find my biological parents and information about my background. Because of that research it became clear, and what I have always been honest about: I don't know where I come from or who my birth parents are, and I will never know.
“That is why, this way is being questioned, is painful, both for me and for my two families I love so much.”
Sainte-Marie claimed that the evidence that was used to question her background was 'manufactured' by her brother and then repeated by two alienated family members.
