Talk:Buffy Sainte-Marie

This is the talk page for discussing Buffy Sainte-Marie and anything related to its purposes and tasks.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3: 2 months

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Musicians

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	This article is supported by WikiProject Musicians.

Indigenous peoples of North America

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Native Americans, Indigenous peoples in Canada, and related indigenous peoples of North America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Indigenous peoples of North AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North AmericaTemplate:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North AmericaIndigenous peoples of North America
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Roots music Low‑importance

	Music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Roots music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles relating to roots, folk and traditional folk music on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Roots musicWikipedia:WikiProject Roots musicTemplate:WikiProject Roots musicRoots music
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Canada: Saskatchewan / Music Mid‑importance

Canada
portal

WikiProject
Canada

Canada
notice board

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Canada, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Canada articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CanadaWikipedia:WikiProject CanadaTemplate:WikiProject CanadaCanada-related

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article is supported by WikiProject Saskatchewan.

This article is supported by WikiProject Canadian music.

United States: University of Massachusetts Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Massachusetts - University of Massachusetts (assessed as Low-importance).

Bahá'í Faith Low‑importance

	Religion portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Bahá'í Faith, a coordinated attempt to increase the quality and quantity of information about the Baháʼí Faith on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia visit the welcome page to become familiar with the guidelines.Bahá'í FaithWikipedia:WikiProject Bahá'í FaithTemplate:WikiProject Bahá'í FaithBahá'í Faith
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Women in Music Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women in Music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Women in music on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women in MusicWikipedia:WikiProject Women in MusicTemplate:WikiProject Women in MusicWomen in music
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

	Indigenous peoples of the Americas portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Indigenous peoples of the Americas, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Indigenous peoples of the Americas on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Indigenous peoples of the AmericasWikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of the AmericasTemplate:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of the AmericasIndigenous peoples of the Americas
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Women artists

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women artists, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of women artists on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women artistsWikipedia:WikiProject Women artistsTemplate:WikiProject Women artistsWomen artists

The contentious topics procedure applies to this article. This article relates to articles about living or recently deceased people, and edits relating to the subject (living or recently deceased) of such biographical articles, a contentious topic. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator.

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (center, color, defense, realize, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Archives: 1, 2, 3

This page has archives. Sections older than 60 days may be automatically archived by when more than 5 sections are present.

The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/human-rights-museum-buffy-sainte-marie-1.7469579

False claims higher in lead

Now that many of the prestigious awards she won while falsely claiming an Indigenous identity have been rescinded, shouldn't that go higher into the lead? Perhaps adding a second sentence after the opening sentence about her career? oncamera _{(talk page)} 19:03, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Potentially, but there was a well participated RfC about this. Granted, it is a bit stale since it is from 14 months ago. --Super Goku V (talk) 04:14, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That was long before the awards were rescinded and around the time of the documentary was just released, so a lot of changes were happening to her article. oncamera _{(talk page)} 05:00, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I getcha. I guess my advice is be bold and go for it, discuss if reverted as usual, and if discussion doesn't show a clear favorite, to then do a new RfC to try to see if the circumstances are different enough to change things. --Super Goku V (talk) 05:28, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The lead reads pretty well to me in it's current state. She is most notable for her music career. So focusing on that first is fine and the last paragraph of the lead covers the controversy. Only change I'd make is remove "social activist" from the first sentence. Per MOS:FIRSTBIO, the lead sentence should focus on one, or possibly more, noteworthy positions, activities, or roles that the person is mainly known for, avoiding subjective or contentious terms. Social activist is receiving undue weight in the lead. Nemov (talk) 15:41, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Marriage and offspring info is gone

Marriage and offspring info has been removed. That's common bio info. It would be good to get it sourced and back in. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 02:24, 3 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@North8000 - I do agree with you and I don't remove unsourced personal info without at least having a look for sources; I couldn't find any in this case. Best wishes, T. Tony Holkham (Talk) 08:18, 3 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cool. North8000 (talk) 13:51, 3 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

marriages to Dewain Bugbee, Sheldon Wolfchild, Jack Nitzsche: https://www.cbc.ca/music/read/buffy-sainte-marie-75-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-canadian-icon-1.5010129
Marriage to Jack Nitzsche: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/21/buffy-sainte-marie-documentary-interview
marriage to Sheldon Wolfchild: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/my-time-on-sesame-street-with-buffy-sainte-marie/24486/

oncamera _{(talk page)} 19:14, 3 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like we're doing this at the same time. I've found some other references (some contemporary) about her marriages and put back in some details with references. Seaweed (talk) 19:31, 3 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Claim of Indigenous Identity

This paragraph:

On the day before the broadcast of The Fifth Estate, the Descendants of Piapot and Starblanket issued a statement defending Sainte-Marie's ties to the Piapot First Nation, saying: "We claim her as a member of our family and all of our family members are from the Piapot First Nation. To us, that holds far more weight than any paper documentation or colonial record keeping ever could." They also criticized the allegations against Sainte-Marie as being "hurtful, ignorant, colonial — and racist"

These statements may or may not be true, and these people may or may not have made them, but neither quote appears in the citation given. A new citation sourcing the actual quotes, is needed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.253 (talk • contribs) 01:15, 9 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This is not true. Both quotes do appear verbatim in the cited source. Regards, HaeB (talk) 08:42, 18 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Neutrality in Summary

The opening summary on the subject’s ethnic controversy seems overly weighted to the case against her. I think it would better fit Wikipedia’s values to include some details for the opposite perspective that are described in the respective dropdown, like that she is still an enrolled member of the Piapot Nation, which seems more important for a cursory overview than some other details included. 2603:8080:A2F0:21D0:4C5A:5C00:1AB5:64F4 (talk) 04:20, 11 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Source that she has enrollment? oncamera _{(talk page)} 07:29, 11 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is usually pretty accurate but with the inclusion of the phrase ‘take a DNA test to prove her indigenous roots’, all Wikipedia has unintentionally done is prove how stupid and eager to spread lies they are in Buffy’s case. 65.27.111.148 (talk) 22:53, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Name and deception

I am personally inclined to change the first sentence of the article by replacing "Born ..." with "Real name ..." to more accurately reflect the subject's deliberate campaign of identity deception. TooManyFingers (talk) 00:27, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Real name" can have many definitions. "Born" is unambiguous. It's not more accurate at all. _signed,Willondon (talk) 01:12, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]