Buffy Sainte-Marie may not be Indigenous

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

The indigenous one.

You mean the non-indigenous one.

Her name is Kelsey Asbille, btw. Her real last name is Chow.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Yamer

You mean the non-indigenous one.

Her name is Kelsey Asbille, btw. Her real last name is Chow.

Thank you for being useful

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Maybe try learning how to use google. I’d feel useless too if I didn’t know how.

[pseudoreality]

This reminds me of a radio story I heard on CBC years ago. Apparently, in mid-evil England a man pretended to be Asian. No one had seen an Asian person before so putting your hair in a ponytail was good enough. He claimed that missionaries came to his village and taught him English and he converted to Christianity. People at the time just ate it up. He lived a life of luxury and was sponsored to translate the bible into his native language. Turns out the language he created was very basic, with no irregular verbs or idioms.

I can't seem to find an online reference to this story, but I did find this interesting story about an American man of Scottish descent who pretended to be an Asian mystic in Europe in the late 19th/early 20th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Ling_Soo

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Maybe try learning how to use google. I’d feel useless too if I didn’t know how.

Shut up

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Her career started in the early sixties, I don't think there was any benefit and a vast downside to claiming native heritage in 1963 or 4 when she was establishing herself, maybe if we were talking the late 60's I could see it but not in 63

Not for people in general, no. My dad didn’t talk about his indigenous background until the 80s.

But a folk musician in the 60s might be one of the very few environments where it had value. For Sainte-Marie, it likely made the difference between being just another folk singer flash in the pan who nobody remembered, and becoming something like a national icon.