Live Not By Lies

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It’s often been observed that many great scientific discoveries, as well as evidence of criminality, often begin with someone casually glancing at some kind of anomaly, saying to themselves, “Hmmm – that’s odd!” and curiosity drawing them into taking a closer look at the matter. Such was the case when an activist for matters to do with native American tribal identity (these would be the folk who used to be called Indians of the feather variety) was watching a TV interview. The activist was one of those who specialized in unmasking so-called “Pretendians” – those who claim Indian descent for reasons of social advantage or monetary gain. (Yes, looking at you, Senator Elizabeth Warren.) Remarks made during the interview, by singer-activist Buffy St. Marie, triggered a “Hmm, that’s odd!” reaction. Those remarks concerned St. Marie’s search for her real parents among a Canadian First Nations tribe, and the circumstances under which she was adopted by a white American couple as a baby. “Gee,” thought the activist, “That’s what all the other Pretendians say!”

That may not have been the absolute beginning of the thread-pull which unraveled the tangle of St. Marie’s decades-long claims, but it had the same eventual result.

It must be a horrible and soul-destroying thing to have invested so much of her life and career in a pretense such as that, even as it brought her opportunities and fame. She was and is talented; no denying that, but one does have to wonder if she would have been quite as famous if she remained plain old Beverly Santamaria, a plain old Italian-American girl from upstate New York. It would have seemed like just a small thing at first, a ready temptation to polish one’s image in the press, just to stand out as a little more exotic, a bit more romantic, a bit more authentic in the early years on the 1960s folk scene. Considering again, though: the burden of living a lie, always aware of the media-sharpened sword of Damocles suspended on a thread over one’s head. In the end that must be soul-warping; thinking of the additional lies required to perpetuate that pretense over decades.

They say the road down to hell is paved at first with attractive materials. But as involved, elaborate as the pretense eventually became, so must have the gnawing secret fear that perhaps one day, it might all come tumbling down, just as it finally has in the last few months. The Canadian government has revoked the honors bestowed on her. The proof must be iron-clad that she is Beverly Santamaria, and not a Canadian Piapot tribe member adopted by an American couple through curiously untraceable international governmental shenanigans in 1941. It seems, additionally, that her own son has taken a DNA test, as has her surviving sister – and yes, it turns out they are close blood kin. Which completely invalidates the adoption tale. (More background here, in this documentary.)

I think the ugliest aspect of what would have begun as only a little padding of the ethnic resume is how St. Marie treated her own birth family – a family who otherwise might have taken very real pride in having a talented and famous member. About the time that she began appearing on Sesame Street, her brother Alan went briefly public, protesting that she was not Indian, not adopted at all, but born naturally to his parents, and brought up as his blood sister. In response, the already famous and well-established personality unleashed her lawyers on him, threatening to smear him publicly as an abuser and child molester. There was no way to defend against such a threat, although it appears that no one else in the immediate family gave any credence to the accusation. There would be no way to prove the accusation false; doing so would be messy, public, protracted and would likely cost Alan Santamaria his career and his good name anyway. So the Santamaria family were terrified into silence after that, a silence which continued until recently.

What an ugly, spiteful way to treat your family – because they could and would have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that your public persona was a complete lie. Comment as you wish.

14 thoughts on “Live Not By Lies”

  2. Why are so many progressive do-gooders eventually unmasked as awful, terrible people?

    Because they are awful terrible people. They merely cosplay as do-gooders to get ahead.

    In a different regime they’d be pretending to be communists or nazis or whatevers for that goal. But in present day America they pretend to be progressive, because progressive has been the label to affix to yourself to advance your career.

    I’ve never heard of this Buffy St. Marie/Beverly Santamaria person before now and I don’t care to learn more. I find it quite interesting that The Fifth Estate was willing to look into her backstory. I used to watch that show- which is a Canadian version of 60 minutes- back when TV was analog. I take that willingness as yet another sign that the present regime has entered terminal decline, because otherwise the Canuckistani government wouldn’t let it happen.

    The progressive faithful are losing faith. Otherwise they would have buried this story about Buffy and not made an hour length documentary about it- or at least not allowed it to be aired.

    I bet it will turn out that there are a vast swarm of well-esteemed celebrities who will be exposed as nothing more than grifting criminals.

    This is what regime change looks like. Enjoy.

  3. “I bet it will turn out that there are a vast swarm of well-esteemed celebrities who will be exposed as nothing more than grifting criminals.

    This is what regime change looks like. Enjoy.”

    John Hinderaker at PowerLineBlog published “It’s Corruption All The Way Down” yesterday; having spent decades in D.C. – I’m one of those rare “Native Washingtonians” who was actually born there in the late ’40s and stayed, and got The Full Tour during my tenure in the maze (fortunately all in the small federally-disconnected private sector, such as it is in D.C.) – and he understates the case substantially. We’re about to see nearly a million people and metric tons of our money go through Beverly Santamaria’s unpleasant reveal process. There will be pain on both sides as we do, it’s not pleasant coming to grips with hard evidence of having one’s trust so severely abused. But the Other Side will feel it worse; “anything D.C.” on one’s resume will not be the job-getting phrase it always has been.

    “Live Not By Lies” indeed.

  4. If I’m not mistaken, ol’ Buffy belongs to the same tribe as Eliabeth Warren. Both make much wampum from claim of native ancestry.

  5. I’m old enough to recall Buffy in her heyday. She was the ultimate inside cool singer, whom only the very hippest of the hip truly appreciated. She was the benchmark of authenticity when it came to the counterculture.

    Problem was, her voice sounded like fingernails on a blackboard. High, screechy and not particularly pleasant. There must be some BSM clips on YouTube of Spotify; go spend 30 seconds torturing your ears if you don’t believe me.

    It wasn’t just that she adopted this con job to add some style to her image. She used it to bludgeon you with her moral superiority and guilt you into buying her stuff and pretending to like it.

    I weep no tears for this fraudster; she’s had a lifetime of cruising along on mediocre talent and Native American oppression fantasy. She won the game.

  6. I always wondered if she had a sister named Soo.

    Sorry, I grew up in Michigan, I think it’s a regional thing.

  10. I had some of her albums, back in the day. I thought she had a good voice.

    Buffy looks a lot more Indian/Native American than Elizabeth Warren. I guess Sicilians look more Indian/Native American than English/Scots Irish. Sure fooled me. Her threatening her brother is shameful.

    A cousin’s wife in Oklahoma thought she had some Native American/Indian ancestry, due to a great-grandmother who died young and wasn’t well documented. She did a DNA test–all European. At least she never used that claim or belief to advance her career, as Buffy and Elizabeth Warren did. (My cousin, her husband, is 1/16 Native American/Indian. Common in Oklahoma.)

    There are some high cheekbones on the other side of my family, but minimal Indian/Native American (I calculate 1/512). Years ago a cousin worked a summer at Crater Lake. Some tourist, seeing my cousin’s high cheekbones, asked if she were Indian/Native American. My cousin jokingly replied that she was the great-granddaughter of Cochise.

  12. Christopher B
    @Bill Archer, I’m sure we could get Espera Oscar de Corti to shed a tear.
    Wouldn’t you know it, he was Sicilian.

  14. On the other hand, I did an Ancestry DNA test, and it came back 1% native American. There must have been some sort of hanky panky way back when, but there was never any talk of Indian ancestry in my family, probably because it was considered embarrassing. If only I had known sooner! Or does it work that way? Is scientific proof of Indian ancestry good enough, or do you have to somehow prove that you were discriminated against? Well, a specious claim was good enough for Elizabeth Warren, maybe it would have worked for me.

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