‘We claim her, end of story’: Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Piapot family hurt by allegations
globalnews.ca.”It was done in Cree custom and while Sainte-Marie didn’t claimed proof of blood relations, she is accepted as kin because of that ceremony.“It’s really insulting that someone would question my great grandfather’s choice and right to adopt Buffy as his daughter,” Piapot said.“No one has the authority to question our sovereignty, we are a sovereign nation, we are sovereign people and our adoption practices have been intact since time immemorial.“Having someone question the validity of that adoption … it’s hurtful, it’s ignorant, it’s colonial, and quite frankly it’s racist.“Sainte-Marie’s authorized biography written by Andrea Warner reads “There’s no official record of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s birth, not really. At least not a satisfactory and decisive one that answers questions before they’re asked, grounded in a family lineage with all the gifts and baggage that accompany that kind of belonging.”The book continues, “born with the given name Beverly, most likely in 1941, on or around February 20th, and probably on a reserve called Piapot in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan.
She is Cree.”Sainte-Marie has said she was somehow adopted and raised in Massachusetts by a non-Indigenous family.But the CBC investigation — none of which has been verified by Global News — challenges that. They say a birth certificate shows her parents are Italian and English and aren’t her adopted parents at all, but her birth parents.
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