The evidence, including a birth certificate looks pretty conclusive. Buffy Saint-Marie, indigenous Canadian icon, is apparently no more indigenous than I am.

For six decades she has been a well-known singer-songwriter, winner of multiple awards, and supposedly she’s not who she says she is. I must admit, I am a little surprised.

At the same time I don’t really care. She makes good music, I’m not concerned about her ethnicity, even as I wonder what effort it took to apparently live a lie all these years. It matters to a lot of people though.

I’m confused with the whole identity thing. If it is wrong to claim to be indigenous when you aren’t, why is it right to claim to be male or female when your genitalia says the opposite? Or, perhaps closer to the mark, why is it okay for indigenous musicians to appropriate hip hop and reggae music that is not part of their culture? In art, aren’t the lines a little blurred.

Maybe becasue I am not indigenous I don’t see how Buffy Saint-Marie has harmed indigenous people with supposedly pretending to be one of them. It isn’t as if she took away anyone’s job or livelihood. More likely she opened some doors. I can understand people disagreeing with that.

Maybe she’s not qualified for some of the awards she received – but that wouldn’t be the first time such a thing has happened. After all, Jethro Tull have a Grammy for best heavy metal album, which if you aren’t familiar with their music can only be seen as a joke and unfair to those who actually make music in that genre.

I’m a big fan of truth. Which means I have no issues with the journalists who broke the story that Saint-Marie may not be indigenous. At this point she’s sticking with her story in the face of some pretty convincing evidence. Maybe, after sixty years, she even believes it.

If she can’t refute the story, I’d be really interested to hear her reasoning as to why she started the impersonation and maintained it so long. Certainly, back in the early 1960s , there wouldn’t have been any advantages to claiming to be an “Indian.”

Or maybe there were and I just don’t know them. I’m hopeful we get to hear the whole story.