Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

Buffy Sainte-Marie on Democracy Now

An exhibit including a display of the tribal flags from the Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Oglala, Rosebud, Sisseton Wahpeton, Standing Rock and Yankton Sioux Tribes. (Rapid City Journal File photo)


Amy Goodwin, host of Democracy Now, recently did an hour-long special interview with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cree artist and activist. Sainte-Marie just released her 18th album, her first in 13 years. It’s called “Run for the Drum.”

I remember the first time I saw a Sainte-Marie album. It belonged to my aunt Karen. I was visiting her and the adults in the house were excited about the music. I stared at the cover graced by the artist. She was dressed in beads and leather. It was the first time I ever saw an Indian on record cover, yet alone heard one singing on album. Now, after listening to the Democracy Now interview, I’m ever more impressed with Sainte-Marie , a folk icon known around the world.

From the Goodwin interview, words from a love song written by Sainte-Marie:

You’re not a dream

You’re not an angel

You’re a man

And I’m not a queen

I’m a woman

Take my hand

We’ll make a space

in the lives

that we’d planned

And here we’ll stay

Until it’s time

for you to go

Yes, we’re different

Worlds apart

We’re not the same…

Here’s what musician Robbie Robertson had to say about Sainte-Marie’s phenonmenal success: “You have to break through. It isn’t like they got the door wide open and saying, ‘Hey, all you Indians, come on in!’ It isn’t like that in the real world, you know? So this girl had to stand up and, you know, and break through barriers. And I’m very proud that she’s done it.

Sainte-Marie said: “I always thought it was going to be over tomorrow. I never, ever thought that any of my songs would be remembered today or that I’d be sitting here at this age getting ready to go into a concert with the Winnipeg Symphony and visit reserves. But that’s the way that my life has turned out, and I’m very, very grateful for it.”

Jodi Rave

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

2 Comments

  • HeidgeBerblond

    Its really something straight from heart…..and this book is the best way to share ur feeling for khushi and to remember her…

  • Abena Songbird

    Buffy has been a shero of mine for many, many years. As a longtime singer/songwriter and poet I’ve always thought she puts all Indian people “up where we belong” with her voice of justice, love, her art and beauty, her innovative songwriting, Bury My Heart, etc..she was just so ahead of her time, and continues to forge this path as a multimedia arist and powerful strong Cree woman. The first solo I ever song in a Black Gospel Choir at Glide Church in San Francisco was her song, “Up Where We Belong.”

    Her Cradle board project has also helped so many of our Canadian First Nation cousins. Thank you Jodi for posting this. I so look foward to buying and uploading her new album, Run for the Drum, on my ipod.

Comments are closed.

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