Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography

Warner (We Oughta Know: How Four Women Ruled the 90s and Changed Canadian Music) presents a broad overview of the career of Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Cree singer, activist, educator, and actor who was born in Saskatchewan in 1941. Sainte-Marie is known for her earnest pop songs from the 1960s through the ’90s ( among them “Universal Soldier” and “Until It’s Time for You to Go”), indigenous anthems (“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”), and her years as a performer on Sesame Street in the 1970s. Quoting extensively from interviews with Sainte-Marie, Warner writes honestly about the racism Sainte-Marie experienced growing up; her opioid addiction in the 1960s; and her claims of being blacklisted, along with other indigenous people, by American radio stations in the 1970s. She documents Sainte-Marie’s music collaborations (she recently recorded with Canadian throat singer Tanya Tagaq); her Native American school curriculum, the Cradleboard Teaching Project, which helps raise self-esteem; and her receiving an Academy Award for best original song (“Up Where We Belong,” performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes). While Sainte-Marie’s voice shines through—funny, sharply incisive, never bitter—some sections feel clunky due to an overreliance on direct quotes from lengthy, unedited interview transcripts. The book feels overlong, but it’s nevertheless a heartfelt portrait. [em](Sept.) [/em]