There's apparently no shortage of white ladies pretending to be Native Americans. We all know Elizabeth Warren, of course.
Then there's other celebrities:
And random professors:
And now, apparently folk singers!
Oscar-winning folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie has long been viewed as a barrier-breaking, Indigenous icon — but a recent news investigation has raised doubts over her Indigenous roots.
A Canadian Broadcast Corporation feature on the singer-songwriter has led to accusations that Sainte-Marie is a "pretendian" — the term coined for people who fake having Indigenous ancestry.
It's so popular a gambit that they have a name for it!
To be sure, the lady DOES look like a Native American.
The singer "claimed that she was born on a Piapot Cree reservation in Canada and was adopted by white parents," but the recent CBC report "cites a birth certificate that states the singer was born ‘Beverly Jean Santamaria' in Stoneham, Massachusetts to parents of European lineage."
Hmm "Beverly Jean Santamaria" is not exactly a common name for a Native American.
Sainte-Marie has denied the claims, writing in a statement that she is "proud of my Indigenous-American identity," which she said he learned from family history and personal research.
"I may not know where I was born, but I know who I am," she declared.
Well, good for you, ma'am, but I'm not sure the rest of us are convinced.
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