The Blacklisting of Buffy Sainte Marie

[douglas9]

A gift arrived in the mail from Buffy Sainte-Marie, sent by Buffy from her home in Hawaii. It is a biography of her life, Buffy Sainte-Marie: It's My Way, written by Dr. Blair Stonechild, Muscowpetung First Nation.

Inside, there is a note written by Buffy, "To Brenda, with thanks for years of getting so much so right. Ke chi megawetch and aloha."

In the book's bibliography, there's an article that is part of the history of Censored News. This history begins on Navajoland. The year was 1999 and Buffy was performing at Dine' College in Tsaile, Arizona.


Backstage, Buffy described how she was blacklisted out of the music business in the United States by President Lyndon Johnson. Buffy's song Universal Soldier had become an anthem for the 1960s peace movement, the anti-war movement against the Vietnam war. Shipments of her records disappeared.

I was a staff writer for Indian Country Today in 1999 and wrote an article about the blacklisting of Buffy. This article was censored for nine years by the editors of Indian Country Today. Even when it was published in 2006, the portion on uranium mining targeting Lakota land on Pine Ridge was censored and removed. Two months after it was published, I was terminated by Indian Country Today with no cause given. Censored News was born.

In the book, Buffy describes how Universal Soldier came to her, after seeing wounded soldiers at the San Francisco airport in 1963, while waiting for a morning flight to Toronto. As the song became an anthem for draft dodgers, Buffy was targeted.


https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-blacklisting-of-buffy-sainte-marie.html

[elleng]

1. ;-(

[Ghost Dog]

5. Powerful song.

"... As the song became an anthem for draft dodgers, Buffy was targeted.

"I didn't know any better. I assumed that in America you could say what you wanted to say."

Still, things were going well for Buffy at the time. "And then Kennedy was assassinated and Johnson took over and all of a sudden my radio play stopped, and my phone was tapped. I was no longer as welcome in America."

Buffy's efforts were focused on American Indian rights and the environment. She lent her voice to the struggles of the American Indian Movement, and the fishing rights struggle in Washington state was among those. Buffy sent funds from concerts for water for the Occupation of Alcatraz. When Buffy performed at an Alcatraz fundraiser at Stanford University, on Dec. 18, 1969, Richard Oakes presented her with a bouquet of flowers and read the Alcatraz Proclamation... "

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-blacklisting-of-buffy-sainte-marie.html

[Backseat Driver]

2. More...

https://monicalizzy.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/buffy-sainte-marie-the-hidden-story-of-uranium-on-indian-land/

I'd like to believe ICT is trying to make amends for succumbing to government censorship and punishment of it's reporter back then, but still the link below to this important article doesn't quite work. The comments held an alternative page that does work. Of note, I subscribed to the premier of a beautifully put together ICT magazine. The issues never completed the first year, and although their closing apologies mentioned trying to "get it together," I've continued to follow their offerings which remain solely on-line.

https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/intergenerational-trauma-understanding-natives-inherited-pain-HuBOpnz69kSHjN3RsfyRYg/

You can read it here: https://www.academia.edu/31720368/Intergenerational_Trauma_Understanding_Natives_Inherited_Pain

Intergenerational trauma is a real thing: It causes epigenetic changes that cross into many future generations; other persecuted groups also likely to suffer. Want to know more? Use your browser for additional information about what impact this causes in our nation.

[2naSalit]

3. K&R

[littlemissmartypants]

4. I was just thinking about her and this song's been running around in my head. I love her.

Thanks for the post douglas9. ❤

[spike jones]

6. The Priests of the Golden Bull- Buffy Sainte-Marie

[airplaneman]

7. She has always been one of my favorite artists from her first album n/t.

[AwakeAtLast]

8. I loved her when I was little!

Thanks for sharing a fascinating article! We have been seeing a lot of information about how much worse Native Americans have been treated than originally known. Add this to an ever growing list.

[wnylib]

9. I understand whst you mean. Many people

don'r have much information about non-Native attitudes towsrd Native people. But it has always been known --just covered up, or glossed over and not reported.

Also, these issues are ogoing in the present, not just part of a distant past. Despite genocides. and attempted.cultural obliteration, Native people snd cultures are still here.

Edited to correct typos.