songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire also includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism.
In 1997, she founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding Native Americans. She has won recognition and many awards and honours for both her music and her work in education and social activism.
Buffy Sainte-Marie was born in 1941 on the Piapot Plains Cree First Nation Reserve in the Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was later adopted, growing up in Massachusetts, with parents Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie. She attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, earning degrees in teaching and Oriental philosophy and graduating in the top ten of her class. She went on to earn a Ph.D in Fine Art from the University of Massachusetts.
In 1964, on a return trip to the Piapot Cree reserve in Canada for a powwow she was welcomed and (in a Cree Nation context) adopted by the youngest son of Chief Piapot, Emile Piapot and his wife, who added to Sainte-Marie's cultural value of, and place in, native culture.
In 1968, she married surfing teacher Dewain Bugbee of Hawaii; they divorced in 1971. She married Sheldon Wolfchild from Minnesota in 1975; they have a son, Dakota "Cody" Starblanket Wolfchild. That union also ended in divorce. She married her co-writer for "Up Where We Belong," Jack Nitzsche, on March 19, 1982. He died from a heart attack on August 25, 2000. As of 2007, she lives in Hawaii.
Although not a Bahá'í herself, she became an active friend of the Bahá'í Faith by the mid-1970s when she is said to have appeared in the 1973 Third National Bahá'í Youth Conference at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and has continued to appear at concerts, conferences and conventions of that religion since then. In 1992, she appeared in the musical event prelude to the Bahá'í World Congress, a double concert "Live Unity: The Sound of the World" in 1992 with video broadcast and documentary. In the video documentary of the event Sainte-Marie is seen on the Dini Petty Show explaining the Bahá'í teaching of progressive revelation. She also appears in the 1985 video "Mona With The Children" by Douglas John Cameron. However, while she supports a universal sense of religion, she does not subscribe to any particular religion.
Sainte-Marie claimed in a 2008 interview at the National Museum of the American Indian that she had been blacklisted by American radio stations and that she, along with Native Americans and other native people in the Red Power movements, were put out of business in the 1970s.
In a 1999 interview at Diné College with a staff writer with the Indian Country Today, Sainte-Marie said "I found out 10 years later, in the 1980s, that President Lyndon B. Johnson had been writing letters on White House stationery praising radio stations for suppressing my music" and "In the 1970s, not only was the protest movement put out of business, but the Native American movement was attacked."
As a result of this blacklisting led by (among others) Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and Nashville disc jockey Ralph Emery (following the release of I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again), Sainte-Marie said "I was put out of business in the United States".
Darling Don't Cry
Buffy Sainte-Marie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He was singing and I was a dancer
To the heartbeat drum
Heartbeat drum
Hey-yo, hey-ya
Long summer nights
Falling in love
Don't ever want to say goodbye
Darling don't cry
When I leave the USA
If you like I'll take you home
When I go back to Canada
Hey-ya, hey-ya
The lyrics of Buffy Sainte-Marie's song "Darling Don't Cry" reflect the story of a love that came to be during a powwow. The singer met her lover while she was a dancer and he was a singer on the powwow trail. The beat of the drum seemed to bring them together as their hearts beat in harmony while they danced and sang to the rhythm. The lyrics of the song are full of nostalgia for the time they spent together, with mentions of long summer nights falling in love and not wanting to part or say goodbye. The repetition of "Hey-yo, hey-ya" throughout the song adds to the tribal feel of the song and reinforces the deep connection both characters have to their culture.
In the second verse, the singer acknowledges that she will have to leave the USA and return to Canada, but she offers to take her lover with her if he wants to come along. The choice of words in this verse is interesting because the singer never mentions why she has to leave the US, nor does she seem to be upset about it. It's possible that her lover is also from Canada, and they are both simply returning to their home country, but the lyrics are left ambiguous. The chorus repeats the sentiment of not wanting to say goodbye and encourages her lover not to cry because they will be together again.
Overall, the song is a bittersweet reflection on a fleeting love that was cultivated through a shared love of music and dance. The lyrics evoke emotions of longing, nostalgia, and a desire for unity and understanding across cultures.
Line by Line Meaning
I met him on the powwow trail
I encountered him at a Native American gathering
He was singing and I was a dancer
He was performing as a singer and I was a participant as a dancer
To the heartbeat drum
The sound of the drumbeat was the backdrop for our interaction
Heartbeat drum
The rhythm of the drum was the prominent aspect of the musical performance
Hey-yo, hey-ya
Long summer nights
We had an extended time period to spend with each other
Falling in love
We developed romantic feelings for each other
Don't ever want to part
We wish to not be separated from each other
Don't ever want to say goodbye
We want to avoid the act of leaving each other
Darling don't cry
A term of endearment for the person being addressed, asking them to not cry
When I leave the USA
When I have to leave America
If you like I'll take you home
Offering the possibility to bring the other person back to their home country
When I go back to Canada
When I return to my home country
Hey-ya, hey-ya
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: BUFFY SAINTE MARIE, EDMUND ARTHUR BULL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Victor R. Aguiar
I met him on the powwow trail
He was singing and I was a dancer
To the heartbeat drum
Heartbeat drum
Long summer nights
Falling in love
Don't ever wanna part
Don't ever wanna say goodbye
Darling, don't cry
When I leave the USA
If you like I'll take you home
When I go back to Canada
Darling, don't cry
When I leave the USA
If you like I'll take you home
When I go back to Canada
nowgleaning
I met him on the powwow trail
He was singing and I was a dancer
To the Heartbeat Drum
Heartbeat Drum - heyo heya
Long summer nights
Falling in love
Don't ever want to part,
don't ever wanna say goodbye
Darling don't cry
When I leave the USA
If you like I'll take you home
When I go back to Canada
hey ya, hey ya...
Cheyanne Kokrine
My daddy use to sing this song to me when i was young, every time he sang it to me, i would cry. Now, my daddy isn't here it hurts to hear this song, i miss my daddy. I always loved this song, I've always tried figuring this song out when i was a young girl. I wish my daddy would of sing this song to me one more last time before he left, i would of been happy, and sad at the same time. I just hope i meet him some time, REST IN PEACE DADDY! I MISS AND LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! I hope you can hear this song too, and i hope your singing along with it.
Julie Nelson
Chyanne Kokrine...I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you lost your Daddy. That was so sweet of him to sing this awesome song to you when you were young. Hold on to those memories!! God bless you❤✌🙂
Forevermore
May you father rest in peace, perfect peace!
kota gregoire
Mine too :) October 2021. Miss him more than ever.
Mt Kelly
Deeply felt, beautifully put, he lives on in your heart
Gerald Scarff
Fear not daughter
For I go before you and prepare a place for you my love..
I will see you on the other side of the river..
Shawna Gail
My favorite song from Buffy, my uncle was one lucky man to have been in this music video with her. I AM A PROUD CREE WOMAN! Coming From Saskatchewan, Canada I love my heritage and where I come from, standing by my people 10000%
Wabanaki Warrior - Mi'kmaw Indian of Mi'kma'ki
Hello, beautiful Cree Lady.
Shawna Gail
@Otto Man the man in the white cowboy hat singing in the background
Brendan Barry
So much pain, so much despair, so much pride, so much defiance, so much history in one song.