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In more than 30 years of performing, composer and songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie has turned her energies to love songs, political protests, and Native-American issues and voiced a deep concern for the American land and landscape. NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN CHILD, a selection of 12 previously released tunes, touches all these areas. "Moonshot" presents Sainte-Marie's often elliptical approach to the subject of love, while "Poppies" displays her original vocal style. Meanwhile, "Soldier Blue" is perhaps the most complex protest song to outlive the Vietnam era; its theme being that there are other ways to love one's native land than by serving as a soldier. Buffy Sainte-Marie is best known as a Native-American voice, and "Cree Call," previously unavailable on CD, is a song in her people's language. Native-American themes emerge in the lighthearted bounce of "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo," the wry humor of "Now That the Buffalo's Gone," and the stark truths of the thought-provoking "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying." Sainte-Marie's unique ability to blend suggestions of hope and healing with the hard realities of life is especially apparent in her tribute to her northern homeland in "The Piney Wood Hills" and the driving affirmations of Native life in "Native North American Child."