Buffy Sainte-Marie Stripped of Canadian Awards Over Citizenship and Heritage Questions

The singer-songwriter has lost multiple honors, including Junos and Polaris Prizes, after confirming she is not Canadian and following an investigation into her Indigenous identity claims.

• Buffy Sainte-Marie, an Oscar-winning musician, has had her Juno Awards, Polaris Music Prizes, and Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction revoked after it was confirmed she is not a Canadian citizen.
• The controversy stems from a CBC investigation in 2023 that questioned her claims of Indigenous heritage and presented evidence she was born in Massachusetts to white parents.
• Sainte-Marie has denied fabricating her identity, stating she was adopted by a Cree family in Saskatchewan as a young adult and has lived with uncertainty about her parentage.
• She returned her Order of Canada earlier this week, expressing gratitude for her time holding the honors but maintaining her pride in her Indigenous-American identity.
• Organizations like CARAS and Polaris clarified that their decisions were based on eligibility criteria requiring Canadian citizenship or permanent residency, not her artistic contributions.

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