
Canadian-born American singer-songwriter, guitarist, political activist, and visual artist known especially for her use of music to promote awareness of issues affecting Native Americans. Orphaned as an infant in Canada when her mother, a Plains Cree, died in an auto accident, Sainte-Marie was adopted by an U.S. couple of Mi’kmaq ancestry and raised in Massachusetts & Maine. Her earliest days as a self-taught folk singer were spent shaking up the coffeehouses and consciousnesses in Greenwich Village and helping Joni Mitchell get discovered. Along with her lifelong commitment to and advocacy for Indigenous and Aboriginal people around the world, she has changed the education system from within, and maintained an unwavering passion for social justice, equality and the Earth mixed with her love of sound and songs. Her legacy is that of as an ever-curious, ever-evolving, and technologically pioneering musician, producer, composer and artist — despite her inability to read a note of music.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
TV • 1962

Top of the Pops
TV • 1964

The Virginian
TV • 1962

The Merv Griffin Show
TV • 1962

Dinah!
TV • 1974

Then Came Bronson
TV • 1969

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
TV • 1995

Austin City Limits
TV • 1975

Kraft Music Hall
TV • 1958

The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
TV • 1969

On the Trail of Easy Rider: 40 Years On... Still Searching for America
TV • 2011

Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble
MOVIE • 2020

Festival
MOVIE • 1967

The Broken Chain
MOVIE • 1993

Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation
MOVIE • 2013

Broken Rainbow
MOVIE • 1985

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
MOVIE • 2017

Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On
MOVIE • 2022