Do you remember the little wrestlers Little Beaver and Sky Low Low, who had their moment of glory in the 70s alongside Ferré Giant and Powdered Hollywood?
They were considered Aborigines.
Well, there was no more blue blood in the mattress king’s veins than there was native blood in her veins.
Little Beaver was called Lionel Giroux and was born in Saint-Jérôme, while Sky Low Low was called Marcel Gauthier and was born in Montreal.
The same goes for Iron Eyes Cody, the famous Cherokee chef who cried in an anti-environmental advert aired in the US in 1971, who was actually called Espera Oscar de Corti and was… Italian.
ONE PRODUCTION
Another name has just been added to the long list of fake Native Americans: Buffy Sainte-Marie.
The 82-year-old artist is a world-renowned singer-songwriter (we have her to thank for the famous song “Up Where We Belong” from the film “An Officer and a Gentleman”) and has spent her entire career as an Aboriginal.
However, the CBC has just released a long, damning report that shows, with supporting evidence and testimony, that this muse of Native American rights, who said she was a member of the Cree nation, was as Aboriginal as Boucar Diouf was Swedish.
“I was born on a Cree reservation in Saskatchewan and adopted by an American couple living in Massachusetts,” she repeated again and again in interviews.
That was completely wrong, family members said. According to her birth certificate, Buffy Sainte-Marie was born in the United States to white parents.
Remember that Ms. Sainte-Marie has won several awards for Indigenous artists throughout her career, including four Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, two Aboriginal Peoples’ Choice Music Awards, four Juno Awards for an Indigenous Artist and four Indigenous Lifetime Achievement Awards!
She even appeared on a Canadian postage stamp wearing jewelry and cultural accessories (feathers, necklaces, etc.) associated with First Nations.
It’s like the pseudo-Apache activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who picked up the Oscar that Brando won for The Godfather, and who was actually… a Mexican woman named Marie Louise Cruz.
SURF THE WAVE
What do you want: It’s cool to be indigenous!
No wonder artists who have no indigenous ancestors in their family tree invent them!
Particularly today, belonging to the First Nations has many advantages. For example, you are more likely to receive a scholarship or research grant or be considered for a job…
If you’re also trans and Indigenous, bingo! Your request ticked two boxes!
Tomorrow, when you explain to your child why she can’t dress up as an Apache chief for Halloween, remember Buffy Sainte-Marie, who had a great international career by navigating a culture and appropriating a history that wasn’t his was own.
Does Madame Sainte-Marie have to return the prizes she has won and the honors she has received?
Something tells me no…
