Buffy Sainte-Marie

Inducted in 1995

Few musicians have combined art and activism as effectively and profoundly as Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Born on a Plains Cree First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan on February 20, 1941, Sainte-Marie was adopted as an infant and raised in Maine and Massachusetts. After graduating with honours from the University of Massachusetts, she moved to New York in 1963 and immersed herself in the city’s nascent folk music scene, as well as Toronto’s equivalent Yorkville scene. Around this time she revisited the Piapot Reserve where she was born and was adopted into the tribe.

Video Background

Videos

Quick Fact

Her 1963 song “Cod’ine” was covered by Donovan, Janis Joplin and Courtney Love.