Buffy Sainte-Marie is a musician, songwriter, artist, and activist whose career began in the early 60s. She was born on a Cree Reservation in Saskatchewan, Canada and grew up in the United States. By 24, she had already earned a Ph.D. in Fine Arts, and traveled the world performing her music. Her song 'Universal Soldier' is an anthem for the peace movement, and many other musicians have recorded her music including Elvis, Cher, Donovan, Janis Joplin, Neil Diamond, and Roberta Flack.
In the late 70s, Buffy starred on Sesame Street for 5 years which is pretty cool. In the 80s, there was a U.S. government conspiracy to blacklist her because of her opinions on peace and Native American rights. To this day, she still is one of the biggest celebrities lending a voice for Native American rights.
Buffy is also a pioneer when it comes to digital art. She started using Macintosh computers in the early 80s to record music and create visual art.
Buffy Sainte-Marie played guitar and the mouth-bow. Here she is on the Pete Seeger's show Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger in 1965 demonstrating the mouth-bow:
And singing with Johnny Cash on The Johnny Cash Show in 1969:
And just to reiterate how cool Sesame Street was in the 70s:
