Born on the Piapot Cree Reserve in Canada and raised in US, Buffy Sainte-Marie is a Native American singer/songwriter who began her career as a musician in the early 1960s, after earning her PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts. She rose to prominence during the mid-1960s folk scene of New York's Greenwich Village along with contemporaries Leonard Cohen and Jonie Mitchell, while artists including Janis Joplin recorded her early songs and turned them into major hits. In addition to her music, her work as a teacher, activist and visual artist largely focuses on the various issues facing the indigenous people of America. Sainte-Marie released her debut album It's My Way!, in 1964 and has since continued to release politically driven records into the 21st century, including her 2008 studio album Running For The Drum.
