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".
Now That The Buffalo's Gone
Buffy Sainte-Marie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That you have held your head high
And told all your friends of your Indian claim?
Proud good lady and proud good man
Some great great grandfather from Indian blood came
And you feel in your heart for these ones
Oh, it's written in books and in song
Well over and over I hear those same words
From you good lady and you good man
Well listen to me if you care where we stand
And you feel you're a part of these ones
When a war between nations is lost
The loser we know pays the cost
But even when Germany fell to your hands
Consider dear lady, consider dear man
You left them their pride and you left them their land
And what have you done to these ones
Has a change come about my dear man
Or are you still taking our lands?
A treaty forever your senators sign
They do dear lady, they do dear man
And the treaties are broken again and again
And what will you do for these ones
Oh, it's all in the past you can say
But it's still going on here today
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
The song "Now That The Buffalo's Gone" by Buffy Sainte-Marie speaks to the loss and mistreatment of indigenous people in North America. The lyrics ask the listener to reflect on their own claims of indigenous ancestry and their response to the injustices faced by native communities. The first verse is a challenge to those who claim to have Indian ancestry, questioning if they truly understand and feel a connection to the struggles faced by native people. The second verse acknowledges the common portrayal of mistreatment against indigenous people in books and songs, calling for action rather than just words. The third verse draws a contrast between how defeated nations are treated in war versus how indigenous people have been treated when their land was taken.
The chorus is a plea for help and solidarity, referencing the extinction of the buffalo as a metaphor for the ongoing cultural genocide of indigenous people. The bridge directly calls out the broken promises and continuous mistreatment of native communities, stating that it is not just a thing of the past but a current issue that requires action.
Line by Line Meaning
Can you remember the times
Do you recall the moments
That you have held your head high
When you were confident and proud
And told all your friends of your Indian claim?
And boasted about your native ancestry?
Proud good lady and proud good man
Respectable woman and man
Some great great grandfather from Indian blood came
An ancestor with Native American heritage
And you feel in your heart for these ones
You have compassion for them
Oh, it's written in books and in song
It's been documented and sung about
That we've been mistreated and wronged
That we've been subjected to abuse and injustice
Well over and over I hear those same words
I keep hearing those phrases repeatedly
From you good lady and you good man
From respectable women and men like you
Well listen to me if you care where we stand
Pay attention to me if you're concerned about our situation
And you feel you're a part of these ones
And you feel a connection to us
When a war between nations is lost
In the event of a nation's defeat in a war
The loser we know pays the cost
It's common knowledge that the defeated party suffers
But even when Germany fell to your hands
But even when you conquered Germany
Consider dear lady, consider dear man
Think about it, respected woman and man
You left them their pride and you left them their land
You let them keep their dignity and their territory
And what have you done to these ones
But what have you done to us?
Has a change come about my dear man
Have you changed your ways, respectable man?
Or are you still taking our lands?
Or are you still seizing our land?
A treaty forever your senators sign
Your senators sign a treaty that should last forever
They do dear lady, they do dear man
They really do, respected woman and man
And the treaties are broken again and again
And those treaties keep getting violated
And what will you do for these ones
So what are you going to do for us?
Oh, it's all in the past you can say
You could argue that it's in the past
But it's still going on here today
But it's still happening to this day
The governments now want the Navaho land
The government now desires the land of the Navajo
That of the Inuit and the Cheyenne
As well as that of the Inuit and the Cheyenne
It's here and it's now you can help us dear man
It's happening right now, and you can aid us, respected man
Now that the buffalo's gone
Since the buffalo have vanished
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Buffy Sainte Marie
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Thomas Combs
As part Native American, she touches something deep inside that cannot be explained. All children should hear and learn these great songs.
VinylForest
Thomas Combs: I totally agree. We all need to hear these songs……..and I’m not native, but I appreciate living on native land.
Lori Jo Crow
I love and adore her..... courage, strength, excellent storytelling song writer.....We must listen to her. It is still happening and it breaks my heart.
God Bless you Buffy
Sarah Builds Step Sequencers
Lori Jo Crow ❤️🌸🔥🙏🏻
manelle313
God bless you Buffy. May Indigenous and all people around the world be inspired and challenged by this and your other songs.
heatherp8
never fails to give me goose bumps.
One of the heroines of my youth and I love her still.
Dennis Secret
Buffy is simply amazing, and I always feel guilty listening to her songs. What have I done to help? Very little.
VinylForest
This song is so beautiful and meaningful! Thank you Buffy Saint Marie.
B. Bailey
i still get chills hearing this.
alan dvorkis
I wish somehow, Buffy's music could be heard. I wish the truth would be taught. The abuse of Native Americans continues. They lived in harmony with others and more importantly with the environment. It is probably too late. It would still be nice for the young to be enlightened. Truthful and sad, her music resonates, even if it is ignored. Simply brilliant.