Buffy Sainte-Marie on Indigenous Peoples’ Day: “There’s an Awful Lot of Work Yet to Be Done”

Singer-songwriter, educator, and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie, for whom I have great admiration and respect, has long called for the repudiation and dissolution of what’s known as the “Doctrine of Discovery.” In marking Indigenous Peoples’ Day this past Monday, Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman interviewed the “legendary” Buffy.

“My take on Indigenous Peoples’ Day is that there’s an awful lot of work yet to be done,” says Buffy. She goes on to discuss the violent legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery as instituted in the Americas and the importance of implementing positive representations of Indigenous figures and culture in the education system.





Related Off-site Link:
Goodbye, Columbus? Here’s What Indigenous Peoples’ Day Means to Native Americans – Emma Bowman (OPB, October 10, 2022).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Words of Wisdom on Indigenous Peoples’ Day
• Something to Think About – October 9, 2020
• Something to Think About – October 9, 2017
• Something Special for Indigenous Peoples Day
• Buffy Sainte-Marie's “America the Beautiful”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Pope’s Apology Is “Just the Beginning”

For The Wild Reed’s special series of posts leading-up to the November 10, 2017 release of Medicine Songs, see:
• For Acclaimed Songwriter, Activist and Humanitarian Buffy Sainte-Marie, the World is Always Ripening
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “I’m Creative Anywhere”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie Headlines SummerStage Festival in NYC’s Central Park
• Buffy Sainte-Marie, “One of the Best Performers Out Touring Today”
• The Music of Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Uprooting the Sources of Disenfranchisement”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Things Do Change and Things Do Get Better”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Medicine Songs

For The Wild Reed’s special series of posts leading-up to the May 12, 2015 release of Buffy’s award-winning album, Power in the Blood, see:
• Buffy Sainte-Marie and That “Human-Being Magic”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Lesson from the Cutting Edge: “Go Where You Must to Grow”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Sometimes You Have to Be Content to Plant Good Seeds and Be Patient”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Power in the Blood


For more of Buffy Sainte-Marie at The Wild Reed, see:
• Buffy Sainte-Marie's “America the Beautiful”
• A Music Legend Visits the North Country: Buffy Sainte-Marie in Minnesota and Wisconsin – August 2016
• Carrying It On . . . Into the New Year
• Two Exceptional Singers Take a Chance on the “Spirit of the Wind”
• Photo of the Day – January 21, 2017
• Buffy Sainte-Marie Wins 2015 Polaris Music Prize
• Congratulations, Buffy
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2016)
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2018)
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2019)
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2020)
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2021)
• Actually, There’s No Question About It
• For Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Well-Deserved Honor
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: Singing It and Praying It; Living It and Saying It
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: Still Singing with Spirit, Joy, and Passion
• Something Special for Indigenous Peoples Day
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “The Big Ones Get Away”