Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie is an Academy Award-winning Cree singer-songwriter, activist, educator, and visual artist. She is dedicated to her artistry, humanitarian pursuits, and indigenous culture and rights. Her influential albums span decades -- from It's My Way in 1964 and Many a Mile in 1965 to the album Power in the Blood in 2015. As a singer and songwriter, she also issued chart-topping and award-winning singles. She won an Academy Award in 1983 in Original Song and her songs have been sung by performers ranging from Donovan to Janis Joplin to Elvis Presley.  

As a visual artist, Sainte-Marie was an earlier pioneer of digital art, and her pieces are in permanent collections in museums in Canada and the United States. She is also an author whose books for children were recently published. whose books for children including Hey Little Rockabye and Still This Love Goes On And On.

Sainte-Marie has always promoted education for and about the Native American community. She founded the Nihewan Foundation for American Indian Education (subsequently called the Nihewan Foundation for Native American Education), brought awareness to Native American culture as a member of the cast of Sesame Street, and established the Cradleboard Teaching Project to connect Native and non-Native American communities. 

She is the subject of a recent documentary Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On.