Hello Fion, I know of no other musician who was so thoroughly blacklisted as Buffy Sainte-Marie. It all started around 1965, I believe, as the government reacted (secretly) to her recordings of 2 songs "Now That The Buffalo's Gone" and "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying". Of these 2 songs, the latter one is the most harrowing protest song probably that has ever been written. I include the lyrics below...

Now that your big eyes are finally opened Now that you're wondering "How must they feel?" Meaning them that you've chased 'cross America's movie screens, Now that you're wondering "How can it be real?" That the ones you called colorful, noble and proud In your school propaganda, they starve in their splendour, You've asked for my comment, I simply will render... My Country 'tis of thy People you're dying.

Now that the longhouses breed superstition You force us to send our toddlers away To your schools where they're taught to despise their traditions. Forbid them their languages, then further say That American history really began When Columbus set foot out of Europe, and stress That the nation of leeches that's conquered this land Are the biggest and bravest and boldest and best, And yet where in your history books is the tale Of the genocide basic to this country's birth Of the preachers who lied, how the Bill of Rights failed How a nation of patriots returned to their earth And where will it tell of the Libery Bell As it rang with a thud over Kinzua mud (* Kinzua dam area was stolen from Native Americans by a broken treaty) And the brave Uncle Sam in Alaska this year My Country 'tis of the people you're dying.

Hear how the bargain was made for the West With her shivering children in zero degrees "Blankets for your land" so the treaties attest Full well, blankets for land is a bargain indeed! And the blankets were those Uncle Sam had collected Off smallpox diseased dying soldiers that day And the tribes were wiped out, and the history books censored, A hundred years of your statesmen have thought it's better that way, And yet somehow a few of the conquered survived, Their blood runs the redder, though genes have been paled From Los Angeles Country to upstate New York The White race it fattens, while others grow lean Oh, the tricked and evicted they know what I mean, My Country 'tis of thy People you're dying.

The past it just crumbled, the future just threatens Our lifeblood shut up in your chemical tanks And now here you come, bill of sale in your hand And surprise in your eyes that we're lacking in thanks For the blessings of civilization you've brought us The lessons you've taught us The ruin you've wrought us Oh, see what our trust in America's bought us My Country 'tis of thy People you're dying

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity Now that we're harmless and safe behind laws Now that our own chosen way is a novelty Now that even the graves have been robbed Now that my life's to be known as your heritage Hands on our hearts we salute you your victory Choke on your blue, white, and scarlet hypocrisy Pitying the blindness that you've never seen, That the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory They were never no more than carrion crows Drove the wrens from their nest, stole their eggs, changed their story The mockingbird sings it, it's all that she knows And "What can I do" say a powerless few With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye Can't you see that their poverty's profiting you? My Country 'tis of the People you're dying.

There may be more to the song...that's all I can remember. It struck a nerve in 1965, because no one had ever said these things so blatantly over the public airwaves. Even Native Americans were very shocked, because a WOMAN was saying it. Until Buffy, that simply was not done, period. The women were supposed to keep their mouths shut in the public arena. The part about the smallpox blankets is true. Read about it in "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee". It wiped out the tribe in question, so the government got the land and relieved themselves of the subsequent expense of running another wretched reservation. Biological warfare in the 1800's. I believe it was this particular revelation that really blew the minds of the government people in Washington. They were not amused, and they decided to shut down Buffy Sainte-Marie. Within the next calendar year every single radio station in the USA and Canada (incredibly!) was approached by very serious men in suits who advised the station heads not to play any records by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Why? She was a dangerous subversive, probably a Communist! Ha, ha. This is akin to saying Bill Clinton is a Muslim Fundamentalist. The radio stations cooperated, even little college stations, amazingly enough. I do not know of any other artist who was blacklisted in so complete a manner. Meanwhile Buffy was winning ecstatic accolades at folk festivals and live events everywhere...but getting utterly no airplay...and she had no idea why. She became eventually quite discouraged about North America, deciding that for some reason she just wasn't marketable there, and transferred her efforts to France, England, Germany, and the Orient, where she got airplay and was hugely successful.

Now is this not utterly shameful? What Buffy said in that song was literally true. What kind of government fears the truth? Remember, the Nazis had book-burning parties. So too did the Communists in Russia and China. This is what dictatorships do. Of course, they didn't kill her...as the Chinese do doubt would have...they just killed her career in North America.

I have met Buffy Sainte-Marie a few times and I know people who have toured with her. She is a very brave and extraordinary woman. She fought in court for several years in the mid-70's to secure a copy of her FBI file (and she has a constitutional right to get that copy, by the way...without the necessity of a lawsuit). When the file was finally surrendered to her it turned out to be somewhat anticlimactic, to say the least. There was no evidence of any subversive or criminal behaviour to be found in the thousands of hours of observation of her activities by the agents she never knew were there observing her. All there was were reports like...on such and such a day Buffy Sainte-Marie played music to an audience in which was observed Mr. X, a known subversive, Miss Y, a Communist sympathiser, and Mr. Z, a homosexual suspected of drug abuse...etc., etc., yadda, yadda, yadda.

For this your taxes are spent. And mine too, apparently, even in Canada.

There is no one on Earth I admire and respect more than Buffy Sainte-Marie. There was once a young man who rode beside Crazy Horse (Tashunka Witko). He died fighting the stinking cavalry in their blue uniforms...the men who fought for a monthly paycheck, while the Lakota warriors fought for their land, for the buffalo, and for the women and children whom those soldiers raped and stuck on bayonets. That young man was named Little Hawk. People die, but the spirit does not, and the time for the wars is over now, because we are all one humanity in one great medicine circle. Now you know my name, and you have your answer.

Thank you for your patience. I am your brother, be assured.

Little Hawk (George Coventry)