<div><span>Joanne Shenandoah Obituary</span><br />
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Joanne Shenandoah-Tekaliwakwah
</div>
<div>1957-2021
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Joanne Shenandoah-Tekaliwakwah, died at 9:41 pm at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona on November 22, 2021 in her 64th year.
</div>
<div>Joanne was acknowledged as the Matriarch of  Indigenous music, acknowledged as the most proficient and creative aboriginal composer and performer of her era. Beginning in 1989 she released 24 award winning albums ranging in genre from New Age to raw Country, 
</div>
<div>She was an innovator who took the ancestral songs of her Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois) heritage then blended the melodies and words into contemporary recordings which attracted international praise. For her stunning creativity marked by unique and powerful vocals she was given multiple awards ranging from and unprecedented 14 Native American Music Awards (NAMMYS) to the selection as the Independent Native Artists of the year, an International Native Album of the Year from the Canadian Music Awards, multiple Syracuse Area Music Awards (SAMMYS), one Grammy and another two nominations.
</div>
<div>Joanne was also a writer with the book “Skywoman: Takes of the Iroquois” to her credit. At the time of her passing Joanne was working on her autobiography.
</div>
<div>Her remarkable talent as a live performer took her across the planet with performances in South Korea, Australia, Africa and Europe. She opened Woodstock ’94, gave a stellar concert at Earth Day on the Mall before 400,000 people, was asked by Pete Seeger to take the main stage at his Clearwater festivals. She also performed at Madison Garden for Seeger’s 90th birthday celebration with Bruce Springsteen, Kris Kristofferson and Dave Matthews. She also sang with Odetta, John Denver, Dave Amram, R. Carlos Nakai and Rita Coolidge.
</div>
<div>Shenandoah composed the symphony “Skywoman” which was performed by the Syracuse Symphony and featured in a PBS show from the Kemo Theatre in New Mexico with R. Carlos Nakai, Mary Youngblood and Bill Miller.
</div>
<div>Joanne was an advocate for Native music, assisting Ellen Bello, the president of the Native American Music Words, to give a voice for hundreds of Indigenous artists. At the first NAMMYs in 1998 her calls to her friends attracted Wayne Newton, Richie Havens, Robbie Robertson, the Coolidge sisters, Floyd Red Crow Westerman and John Fusco to the stage. 
</div>
<div>Joanne was a headliner at the Foxwoods Casino with Ms. Coolidge, Randy Travis and Willie Nelson. She also did a tribute to Joannie Mitchell at Carnegie Hall. She recorded a hit in Germany with called “Nature Dance” with producer Arian Beheshti. 
</div>
<div>Joanne was always available for benefits as she supported many causes from the World Parliament of Religions to local elder care homes. She was fond of saying that the late Apache musician A. Paul Ortega told her to sing before any audience and Loretta Lynn said she should stay after her concerts until the last fan left.
</div>
<div>Noted for her physical beauty Joanne was a gifted gymnast, a seamstress and one who could master virtually any instrument from guitar to piano, flute to cello. About the only thing she did not at least try and play were the bagpipes.
</div>
<div>Joanne came from a long line of Native leaders. From her lineage came the Revolutionary War leader Chief Skenandoa (Shenandoah) after whom the Shenandoah Valley was named. From him came the inspiration for the American ballad “O Shenandoah”. She was kin to the Oneida advocate Laura Cornelius Kellogg and the late Leon Shenandoah, Atotaho of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Her dad Clifford Shenandoah was a member of the Onondaga Nation Council and her mother, Maisie Shenandoah, was a clan mother of the Oneida Nation. 
</div>
<div>Joanne was given the wolf clan name “Tekaliwakwha” meaning “She Sings” during childhood, a name she carried with great pride.
</div>
<div>In September of 1991 she married Doug George-Kanentiio, Akwesasne Mohawk journalist. They lived together for 28 years in Oneida Castle, NY with their daughter Leah Shenandoah,  Ph. D. candidate at Cornell, and their grandson Ryder Oroniakenrats (Beautiful Sky). 
</div>
<div>Joanne died after a 3 month battle with liver disease caused by CDIFF in 2015 which receded but returned this past summer causing her to be referred to the Mayo Clinic for a transplant. Tragically, her illness was too far progressed resulting in massive internal bleeding, a cardiac arrest and her death.
</div>
<div>She was predeceased by her parents Oneida Wolf Clanmother Maisie Schenandoah and Onondaga Chief Clifford Schenandoah, her beloved grandma Gertrude Schenandoah and her cherished brother Gerald Schenandoah. She leaves sister Wanda, Diane, Victoria and Danielle, all of central New York. She also departs from many nephews, nieces and hundreds of cousins across the continent. 
</div>
<div>For those who want to preserve her historic legacy she wanted her homestead in Oneida Castle, Tkanalohale the most historically significant among the Oneida people. She wished to have it become a cultural center, the place where the great Chief Skenandoa lived and died at the age of 110.
</div>
<div>The amount of support needed is significant but she gave all she had to renovate the 1815 house. 
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><span>There will be a national commemoration for Joanne at Syracuse University in December (details to be announced) with funeral services private. </span><br />
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Joanne’s music can be heard on YouTube and secured at CD Baby, Canyon Records and via her web site: www.joanneshenandoah.com
</div><font color="#333333"><br />Yaw^’ko- The Shenandoah Family</font>

Therese Revesz

Caitlin Wootton

Kate Chaussee

Pauline Julian

Anne Makepeace

Susan Sterrett

Holly Echo-Hawk

Jim Pearson

Alan C Lorefice

Tiffany Ng

Diana Longwell

Marilyn Higgins

Sarah White

Mary Kaplan

Anonymous

Margaret King

JuliAnn Goronkin

Heather D'Amore

Meredith Palmer

Joanne Shenandoah Memorial Fund

Support urgent earthquake relief and past recovery in Venezuela.

Apoya la ayuda urgente tras el terremoto y los esfuerzos de recuperación en Venezuela.

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

Eligible for Profile Share Badge

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

Support Comments Allowlist

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

isEligibleForProfileBadge

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.3.0 and above

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Joanne Shenandoah Memorial Fund

Still $149,864 to go. Help us build momentum.