Who has Buffy Sainte-Marie dated?
THE legendary American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist taught herself to play piano and guitar when she was just a teen.
Buffy Sainte-Marie has received widespread recognition for tackling complex topics, including war, love, religion, and mysticism, in her country folk songs.
Who has Buffy Sainte-Marie dated?
The Oscar-winning singer-songwriter has had a tumultuous dating life.
Though little is known about every partner linked to Sainte-Marie, the country folk musician was married at least three times between her late 20s and late 40s.
Dewain Bugbee
In 1968, when Sainte-Marie was 27 years old, she married a Hawaiian surfing teacher named Dewain Bugbee.
Their marriage was short-lived, with the couple calling it quits just a few years later.
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The duo divorced in 1971.
Sheldon Wolfchild
A few years later, Sainte-Marie married Minnesotan Sheldon Peters Wolfchild in 1975.
The couple have a child together, son Dakota "Cody" Starblanket Wolfchild.
Wolfchild began his acting career alongside Sainte-Marie and their son on Sesame Street.
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He later appeared in the critically acclaimed film, Dances with Wolves.
Shortly after the birth of their son, the couple divorced.
Jack Nitzsche
Sainte-Marie started dating Jack Nitzsche, an American musician, composer, and arranger in the early 1980s.
Nitzsche was known primarily for working on film scores, including The Exorcist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Blue Collar.
He also worked with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and served as the right-hand man of producer Phil Spector.
The couple married on March 19, 1982.
In 1983, they won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing Up Where We Belong, a song written for the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Richard Gere.
In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Sainte-Marie says Nitzsche was "both brilliant [and] a nutcase."
She added that he was "horribly controlling" and constantly "demanding she put her career on hold for over a decade."
Sainte-Marie even claims "he skin-popped heroin into [me] when [I] was asleep."
By the early 1990s, their marriage was over, and the duo had gone their separate ways.
It is unclear whether the duo were ever officially divorced.
Nitzsche suffered a stroke in 1998 which ultimately ended his career.
He passed away in August 2000 from a cardiac arrest.
Chuck Wilson
Sainte-Marie entered a "committed relationship" with Hawaiian Chuck Wilson in 1993.
Little is known about Wilson, as he prefered to stay out of the spotlight, unlike his famous partner.
The couple lived in Kauai, an island in Kauai County, Hawaii.
It's unclear when the couple broke up, or whether they're still together.
In a 2009 article with the Honolulu Advertiser, Sainte-Marie said: "I'm single and anonymous, it's a blessing in my life, having it both ways."
"Anonymity is a precious thing; I love being famous, but I love anonymity more."
Who is Buffy Sainte-Marie?
Sainte-Marie was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts, in 1941 to parents Albert and Winifred Santamaria.
Her father changed the family's surname to Sainte-Marie due to anti-Italian sentiment following WWII.
Sainte-Marie graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, earning degrees in Oriental philosophy and teaching.
In 1963, Sainte-Marie briefly became addicted to codeine after recovering from a throat infection.
Her song, Cod'ine, was later recorded by multiple artists, including Janis Joplin, the Barracudas, and Courtney Love.
The song criticized both opioids and the medical community's role in promoting them, decades before the opioid crisis would take center stage in the US.
In 1964, during a powwow on the Piapot Cree reserve in Canada, Sainte-Marie was welcomed and "adopted" by the youngest son of Chief Piapot, Emile Piapot, and his wife, Clara Starblanket Piapot.
This experience shaped her songwriting, which focused on issues facing Indigenous peoples of the US and Canada.
Many of her songs deal with issues like environmental exploitation, spirituality, decolonization, and activism.
In her early to late 20s, Sainte-Marie spent time in New York City's Greenwich Village, alongside other emerging artists including Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell.
In 1975, Sainte-Marie was hired by Sesame Street to present Native American programming for children for the first time.
She regularly appeared on the show until 1981 and even breastfed her son in a 1977 episode, one of the first representations of breastfeeding ever aired on television.
In the early 1980s, Sainte-Marie became one of the first artists to use computer technology to record her music and accompanying visual art, using Apple II and Macintosh computers.
On September 21, 2015, her album Power in the Blood was named the winner of the 2015 Polaris Music Prize, beating out artists like Drake, Caribou, and the New Pornographers.
On October 26, 2023, a CBC investigation reported that Sainte-Marie had falsely claimed her native identity and fabricated her Indigenous roots.
CBC published Sainte-Marie's official birth certificate, which indicated that she had been born to white parents of Italian and English descent.
The singer had previously claimed that she had been removed from her birth home in Saskatchewan as an infant and adopted by an American family.
In an article for the Toronto Star, Cree author Darrel J. McLeod argued that while Sainte-Marie "is an honorary member of the Piapot family," the singer should acknowledge that she "grew up with a white family and white privilege."
Cree descendants of Piapot and Starblanket also issued a statement, saying: "We claim her as a member of our family and all of our family members are from the Piapot First Nation."
"To us, that holds far more weight than any paper documentation or colonial record keeping ever could."
In a statement released on X, formerly Twitter, before the CBC investigation was published, Sainte-Marie called the allegations "deeply hurtful" and "beyond traumatic."
She added that she was "proud" of her "indigenous-American identity, and the deep ties" she has "to Canada" and her "Piapot family."
"My indigenous identity is rooted in a deep connection to a community which has had a profound role in shaping my life and my work."
The singer's closing statement read "I may not know where I was born, but I know who I am."
When did Buffy Sainte-Marie retire?
Sainte-Marie announced her retirement on August 3, 2023.
Her website listed a number of factors that contributed to her decision, including "travel-induced health concerns" and "performance-inhibiting physical challenges."
Sainte-Marie's decision, however, does not necessarily mean she won't be releasing any music in the future.
Instead, the singer said she was retiring from live performance.
In a personal message on her website, the singer stated: “I have made the difficult decision to pull out of all scheduled performances in the foreseeable future."
Sainte-Marie added that recent health issues were making it impossible for her to perform her music the way she wanted.
"Arthritic hands and a recent shoulder injury have made it no longer possible to perform to my standards."
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She also apologized to her fans and support network: "Sincere regrets to all my fans and family, my band, and the support teams that make it all possible.”
Time will tell if Sainte-Marie will write or record any songs in the future.
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