Oneida Singer Legend Began Her Spirit Journey, Iroquois Confederacy Lose A Peacemaker

by Danny Beaton (Mohawk)

We send Condolences to Joanne Shenandoah’s family and loved ones at this very sad time.

November Twenty-Second 2021, Joanne Shenandoah crossed over to Spirit World to begin her Sacred Journey. What we lost is truly irreplaceable in the truest way. Joanne was creating and composing music for the Universe, for Mother Earth and Great Creator, because she knew she had to, because if she didn’t no one else could say what Joanne knew had to be said. Her people’s love for life, family and nation was so so deep and important. .Joanne knew her words had to be a ceremony for Thanksgiving and Peace. Joanne knew her Haudenosaunee Roots were based on The Good Mind, The Great Law of Peace, Unity, Righteousness, Harmony, Peace and Equality. Her father Clifford was a Pine Tree Chief and mother Maisie a Clan Mother of the great Oneida Nation, one of the Six Nations of The Haudenosaunee Iroquois Confederacy.

All her life Joanne knew she was a sacred singer for our Great Creator and Spirit of our Sacred Ancestors. Joanne was truly blessed to have her husband Kanentiio Doug George journalist, historian and Traditional Mohawk from Akwesasne, now a legend in his own field, defending traditional native culture. This marriage was a coming together of two spiritual-minded Iroquois activists who supported justice and healing for Mother Earth and all people. We the people send our Deep Condolences to Doug and their families and Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Our elders, chiefs, clan-mothers Six Nations Iroquois Haudenosaunee are devastated by the loss of Joanne because life will never be the same without her living energy.

Joanne writes in her song Mother Earth Speaks: “I shake, I shout from time to time, no attention is paid to mind! I fear for you not just for me. My heart beats on. Why can’t you see? Don’t steal my thunder, don’t break my heart. I’m your mother, hear my beating heart. Hear my beating heart. Rape the land, rape your mother.Take the poison from all my water. Cut the trees down to my soul. Strip all my body of all its oil. Don’t steal my Thunder. Don’t Break My Heart ‘Cause I’m Your Mother. Hear My Beating Heart. Hear My Beating Heart.” Joanne writes: “Why? Tell me why His Spirit Lingers On. Who was this young man? What was his name? He was my loved one. He went one day to battle over me. Years I returned to where we laid him down. But now they dug up the ground. They don’t know what they’re taking, his dignity is gone! Oh! Why? Why? Why? Why? Tell me why. Why can’t they leave him? Just leave him alone to be with the ones he now calls his own. They don’t know what they’ve taken, his dignity is gone. His bones, they are scattered, but his spirit lingers on. An old woman now will I speak to the sky and pray that my lover will no longer cry. The pain I feel is so strong. Spirit World awake you yet, you linger on and on. Why? Why? Why? Tell me why.”

Anyone who knows Joanne’s music understands her connection to the life force of her family clan and nation. With over 20 records her voice brings the listener into North American Native Culture even deeper because of the love and pain Joanne feels. With her creativity, voice and energy Joanne could educate us by pulling us into her song, into her ancestors’beauty and the atrocities that they had to endure. Even once they were buried the injustices never stopped. With her songs Joanne could honour her people, her elders, her chiefs, her Clan Mothers, her family. With her songs she could honour Sacred Mother Earth and her Ancestors. Joanne had to be totally connected to the spirits of her ancestors and her Oneida Nation through her songs of cultural hopelessness and pain she felt too. Through Joanne’s song we can follow her footsteps; through her vibrations and stories we can see and hear her messages of peace and respect for life, family and nation, her Oneida traditions: Joanne’s message of The Great Law and The Good Mind with her leaders standing with her, always Chief Leon Shenandoah, Chief Oren Lyons, Leah Shenandoah, Vicky Shenandoah, Maisie Shenandoah, Wanda Wood and Diane Shenandoah and Norma Kennedy Jamieson. The great Legend Carlos Santana once said: “We are here on Sacred Mother Earth to honour and bury our relatives.” This could be no more true than ever in today’s world because it still is a Sacred Life, A Sacred Journey. Joanne was here to teach us Iroquois, Haudenosaunee Six Nations people to be in Unity and Harmony for Peace. Joanne knew all the gifts we were given from the first breath to the last were Sacred from Our Great Creator and there had to be a Thanksgiving and her husband was the very same way as is most of the Great Haudenosaunee Confederacy: we are one mind.

Possibly Joanne’s greatest work is The Peacemaker’s Journey, with every song sung in her Indigenous Tongue, Oneida language: The Peacemaker Is Born, The Good Message, Mother Of Nations, Tadodaho, Snakes In His Hair, Aiionwatha Creates Wampum, Aiionwatha Forgives, Planting The Tree Of Peace, The Eagle Watches, The Great Law Of Peace, You Will Have Peace, Peace and Power, All The Earth Will See, These songs of Peace, Harmony and Unity represent The Great Tree of Peace, the tall eastern pine. Joanne’s recording of Matriarch is another historical masterpiece in her Indigenous Oneida voice, telling the story of the Ancient Iroquois Matriarchal Society which puts our women in their leadership as life-givers. The Peacemaker’s Journey was Joanne Shenandoah’s Journey. Joanne released 24 award-winning albums. She presented concerts all over the world. Her music was loved by anyone who listened. The world has lost a great performer and Human Being!