1960–1979: Rise to prominence Populaire 1968 During the early 1960s, while still in college, her own songs such as "Ananias", the Indian lament "
Now That the Buffalo's Gone", and also "Mayoo Sto Hoon" (a
Hindi Bollywood song "Mayus To Hoon Waade Se Tere" originally sung by the Indian singer
Mohammed Rafi from the 1960 movie
Barsaat Ki Raat) were in her repertoire. This inspired the composition of her widely acclaimed protest song "
Universal Soldier", released on her debut album ''
It's My Way!'' on
Vanguard Records in 1964. It was later a hit for both Donovan and
Glen Campbell. Her 1965 album
Many a Mile included her most successful song "
Until It's Time for You to Go", which has been covered by many artists, including
Neil Diamond,
Roberta Flack,
Elvis Presley,
Bobby Darin,
Nancy Sinatra,
Glen Campbell,
Barbra Streisand,
Peggy Lee,
Andy Williams and many others. In 1965,
Billboard named Sainte-Marie "Favorite New Female Vocalist" in the folk genre in a poll of
disk jockeys. Some of her songs addressing the mistreatment of Native Americans, such as "
Now That the Buffalo's Gone" (1964) and "
My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying" (1964, included on her 1966 album), were seen as controversial. In 1967, she released
Fire & Fleet & Candlelight, which contained her interpretation of the traditional
Yorkshire dialect song "
Lyke Wake Dirge", as well as a French language version of "Until It's Time For You to Go". In 1968 she released "Take My Hand for a While" which was later recorded by Glen Campbell and numerous other artists. Sainte-Marie's other well-known songs include "
Mister Can't You See" (a
Top 40 U.S. hit in 1972); "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo"; and the theme song of the movie
Soldier Blue. She appeared on
Pete Seeger's
Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger in 1965 and several Canadian television productions from the 1960s to the 1990s, and in the TV show
Then Came Bronson episode "Mating Dance for Tender Grass" (1970), she sang and portrayed Tender Grass, the episode's titular character. In 1970 she recorded the album
Illuminations, an early
quadraphonic vocal album on which she used a
Buchla synthesizer. Sainte-Marie appeared in "The Heritage" episode of
The Virginian in 1968, as a Shoshone woman sent to be educated at school.
Sesame Street Sainte-Marie was hired in 1975 to present Native American programming for children for the first time on
Sesame Street. Sainte-Marie wanted to teach the show's young viewers that "Indians still exist". She regularly appeared on
Sesame Street from
1976 to 1981. Sainte-Marie breastfed her first son, Dakota "Cody" Starblanket Wolfchild in a 1977 episode. Sainte-Marie has suggested this is the first representation of breastfeeding ever aired on television.
Sesame Street filmed several shows from her home in Hawaii in 1978. In 1979,
Spirit of the Wind, featuring Sainte-Marie's original musical score, including the title song, was shown at the
Cannes Film Festival. The film is a
docudrama about
George Attla, a "World Champion dog sledder". The American Indian Film Festival, which exhibited the film in 1980, recognizes accurate historical and contemporary portrayals of Native Americans. The song "
Up Where We Belong" (which Sainte-Marie co-wrote with
Will Jennings and
Jack Nitzsche) was performed by
Joe Cocker and
Jennifer Warnes for
An Officer and a Gentleman. It received the
Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1982. They also won the
BAFTA film award for Best Original Song in 1984. On the
Songs of the Century list compiled by the
Recording Industry Association of America in 2001, the song was listed at number 323. In 2020, it was included on
Billboard magazine's list of the "25 Greatest Love Song Duets". In the early 1980s, one of her songs was used as the theme song for the
CBC's Native series
Spirit Bay. She was cast for the
TNT 1993 telefilm
The Broken Chain. In 1989, she wrote and performed the music for
Where the Spirit Lives, a film about Native children being abducted, forced into residential schools, and expected to give up their Native way of life. on June 24, 2009 Sainte-Marie voiced a Cheyenne character, Kate Bighead, in the 1991 made-for-TV movie
Son of the Morning Star, telling the Indian side of the
Battle of the Little Bighorn where the
Sioux chief,
Sitting Bull, defeated Lieutenant Colonel
George Custer. In 1992, after a sixteen-year recording hiatus, Sainte-Marie released
Coincidence and Likely Stories.
2000–2023: Later work and retirement , June 2013 In 2000, Sainte-Marie gave the commencement address at
Haskell Indian Nations University. In 2002 she sang at the
Kennedy Space Center for Commander
John Herrington, USN, a
Chickasaw and the first Native American astronaut. In 2003 she became a spokesperson for the
UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network in Canada. In 2002, a track written and performed by Sainte-Marie, titled "Lazarus", was sampled by
Kanye West and performed by
Cam'Ron and Jim Jones of
The Diplomats under the title "Dead or Alive". In June 2007, she made a rare U.S. appearance at the
Clearwater Festival in
Croton-on-Hudson, New York. In 2008, a two-CD set titled
Buffy/Changing Woman/Sweet America: The Mid-1970s Recordings was released, compiling the three studio albums that she recorded for
ABC Records and
MCA Records between 1974 and 1976 (after departing her long-time label
Vanguard Records). This was the first re-release of this material. In September 2008, Sainte-Marie made a comeback in Canada with the release of her studio album
Running for the Drum. In 2015, Sainte-Marie released
Power in the Blood and appeared on
Democracy Now! to discuss the record and her musical and activist career.
Power in the Blood won the
2015 Polaris Music Prize. Also in 2015,
A Tribe Called Red released an electronic remix of Sainte-Marie's "Working for the Government". In 2016, Sainte-Marie toured North America. In 2017, she released the single "You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)", a collaboration with fellow Polaris Music Prize laureate,
Tanya Tagaq. The song was inspired by
George Attla, a champion
dog sled racer from Alaska. Sainte-Marie is the subject of
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, a 2022 documentary film by
Madison Thomas. In the same year the
National Arts Centre staged
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Starwalker, a tribute concert of musicians performing Sainte-Marie's songs. On August 3, 2023, Sainte-Marie announced her retirement from live performances. ==Personal life==