Buffy Sainte-Marie
Vanguard Visionaries
Vanguard Records SKU 73167-2
(vanguardrecords.com)

Since the 1960s, Buffy Sainte-Marie, born in 1941 on the Piapot Cree First Nation Indian Reserve in Saskatchewan, Canada, has created imaginatively forthright anthems. This Vanguard Visionaries CD gathers some of Sainte-Marie’s most invigorating hits, sung in an achingly pure soprano. “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone” protests broken treaties signed with Native Americans and the theft of indigenous territories: “The governments now want the Navaho land/ that of the Inuit and the Cheyenne/ It’s here and it’s now you can help us, dear man/ Now that the buffalo’s gone.” Sainte-Marie exultingly celebrates her identity with rollicking gusto in “Native North American Child”: “Sing about your ebony African queen/ Sing about your lily-white Lili Marlene/ Beauty by the bushel, but the girl of the hour is a native North American child.” More somber is the pacifist “Universal Soldier,” a pioneering 1964 protest against the then-escalating Vietnam War. There is also the cautionary “Cod’ine,” about overcoming an addiction to codeine; Sainte-Marie was originally dosed with this medicine to help treat a bout of pneumonia, and she soon found herself dependent on it. Now in vibrant health and based in Kauai, Hawaii, Sainte-Marie adheres to the Bahá’í Faith, which stresses spiritual unity. Sainte-Marie is also founding director of the Nihewan (“talk Cree,” or “assume your culture”) Foundation for Native American Education (nihewan.org), which supports teaching programs in 18 states. A dauntless overachiever, Sainte-Marie inspires us with strength to confront our own life challenges.