"The parentage of Buffy Sainte-Marie, a folk singer known for her activism on behalf of Indigenous people, was questioned..."

"Sainte-Marie, considered the first Indigenous person to win an Oscar, has said for decades that she was born to an Indigenous mother before being adopted first by a white couple near Boston and then, as an adult, by the Piapot First Nation. The CBC investigation... pointed to documentation, including Sainte-Marie’s birth certificate and marriage certificate, to show she was born in Stoneham, Mass., as Beverly Jean Santamaria. Sainte-Marie did not speak to the CBC, but in video and written statements, she said the woman she called her 'growing-up Mom' had told her that she was adopted and was Native...."

From "Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous Parentage Is Questioned/An investigation by the CBC disputed a key part of Sainte-Marie’s story, saying that a birth certificate shows she was born to a white family in Massachusetts" (NYT).

2 important considerations: