Lexi I enjoyed your Sea Shanty interpretation of this wonderful song. I have grown up with a different version and here it is. Being from the Virginias and being raised with this song, the name Shenandoah " means daughter of the blue water'. It is an Native American local Indian lore tail here. Pioneers living in the east, farming in this Virginia valley eventually got crowed by the 1820s. So the younger generation family members would leave the family farm to head west and claim their own family's farmstead beyond Virginia. These settlers from the east would be en-route for 3-6 months looking for new farm land, they might travel 10 miles a day in the oxen carts or wagon or on foot. The finality of this long, tired, and dirty trip would be imprinted on their minds when they gazed a crossed the most turbulent river they would need to cross known as, The Missouri River. As in the song, this was sung, "You Raging River". The Missouri was known for drowning many a settlers traveling west. Of course during this western pilgrimage these easterners crossed many other rivers to get to this point. Rivers like The Ohio, The Yeogogheny, The New, The Mississippi, The Plate, The Green and The Snake. When the song mentions 'The Wide Missouri', basically this was the last nail or final straw. Once settlers crossed the deadly Missouri, it was like touching down on the moon on the other side of the the Missouri, if you lived. This was a huge ordeal and obstacle and if you survived it would still be sad because they knew crossing the Missouri, would be crossing the last river of no return, back to the east, forever. The settlers would sing this song KNOWING they'd "Long to hear You" "the Shenandoah" as they crossed the wide Missouri sealing their pioneer fate to living out their lives in the new westerns lands they were driven to settle. They were home sick for the Shenandoah, their home, their family's, their sons , their daughters. Can you imagine the hardships of these settlers? Knowing they could never return to their old lives again after all they needed to survive; a winter, Indian attacks, hunger, disease, river crossings, and this lonely feeling was cemented into their consciousness when they crossed the last river of no return, 'The Wide Missouri. This is how my great grand parents related this song to us youth and how this country was forged through the unknown. A sad but strong song of westward expansion and fear, for a new and better life. I hope I gave you a better flavor of this song and how mind bending it was for our forefathers. Great American Song of Hardship and Drive.
You know this makes the most sense out of all the interpretations that I've heard. I do believe the song is referencing the Shenandoah Valley but it's also a song about all of the pioneers of that time trying to get across the Missouri river. I mean obviously if it didn't have something to do with the Missouri river it wouldn't have mentioned the Missouri river just like it wouldn't mention shanandoah if it didn't have something to do with that area. And it may also well be in regards to a chief. I mean I feel like there are several several really good explanations as to what this song means. But at the end of the day it definitely represents the pioneers of the 19th century And the struggles they went through.
Makes sense. I knew it was hard but I got a whole new appreciation for it at the museum in Independence. They had actual journal entries for each of the trails. One in particular was remarking about how hard it was to find forage either side of the trail, especially if you left late in the year. Families traveling miles out of the way just so the animals could eat. Amazing the things they went through and survived.
Six feet five inches tall, Chief Skenandoah was an Oneida Chief who lived from 1706 until 1816. He sat as a member of the Iroquois Confederacy, was a friend of Ben Franklin and helped save Washington’s troops at Valley Forge. The book “Franklin listens when I speak” is about him.
@tedecker3792 "Six feet five inches tall, Chief Skenandoah was an Oneida Chief who lived from 1706 until 1816." I stumbled onto this stunning ballad a couple of weeks ago, and have been obsessively playing it ever since in every version I could find, and trying to learn about it. One of the first explanations I came across (at youtube, not at google's search engine; I realize that youtube is also google, but it does not propose to provide knowledge) was of a myth, whereby a White man steals an Indian chief's daughter, and asks her father for her hand. Otherwise, I have found a claim from google or wikipedia (they seem to have merged) claiming that "Shenandoah" came from "three native American languages," which I don't believe. One American Indian language, sure, but not three. google/wikipedia seem to be busy disappearing Whites from this song. I get a kick out of the fact that Chief Skenandoah and Harve Presnell (who with Jo Stafford gave one of the most stunning renditions I've so far heard of this song), both stood about 6'5."
song was written by an emancipated slave who was married to an indian woman from a tribe along the Shanandoah river. He was captured in Virginia by slave traders and "bound" to a slaveowner in Missouri - a slave state. He loved his wife and missed her and the life He once had along the "Rolling river" in the Shanandoah valley.
I am a native of Shenandoah, VA where the South Fork of the Shenandoah River flows. Locally, we know Shenandoah to mean "Daughter of the Stars", not of the blue water. The town logo has an Indian gazing gazing at the stars.
Hi Lexi 😃I think this song was originally sung in French, which was the language of the "curriers du bois," "The Transporters (Carriers) of the Woods." I think you'll also find that Shanondoah was a First Nations Princess whom one of the courriers du bois fell in love with and married. Many Frrench courrier du bois intermarried with the First Nations Peoples they traded with. I think you will find that "The Shenandoah" were a Oneida/Irriquois/subsidiary tribe of peoples which was displaced West of The Great Lakes Basin by the Settler's expansion into their traditional hunting area, and also through inter-tribal warfare. The Missourri Valley starts just West of The Great Lakes Basin. The song is lamenting the collapse of the traditional fur trading routes and the seperation of two lovers, as the Courier Du Bois, had to go further West into Missouri to find more furs, thus displacing many peoples. Most of these details are long lost in time, however. The song talks about a Man *"who must go away, across the Wide Missouri."*
I'm Missouri French Creole, a mixture of French and Native American. I can trace my family tree back to France, and my ancestors indeed lived in what later became Illinois, Michigan, Ontario and Quebec. A slow, multi-generational trip, to Missouri. I've always loved this song, it touches me deeply. Thanks to your expatiation Mark, I think I understand why.
@@aarondesrochers5172 It's a powerful song in that it sums up so much old American history which has been totally lost in time. America was once referred to as something else - "The Americas," and "The North American Continent," and for good reason. The borders were very different than they are today, in the places were there was any recognized border at all. Missouri was not a State, it was an open plains territory with some significant rivers running through it. It used to be a rugged and dangerous wilderness, like North Vancouver Island and Western North West Territories and central Yukon and Alaska are today. I'm talking about wilderness that killed a large proportion of the pioneers who ventured into it (Including First Nations People). It was a place where the few folks which lived there would travel miles to help each other out to assist in mutual survival. Shanondoah waited for her Courier de Bois, who died in the wilderness, and was never coming back. Whole families and bloodlines were torn apart and eaten alive by bears and cougars and wolves. Death by dismemberment or exposure to the elements. It wasn't pretty.
Let me add that at that time the french Canadian trappers -coming from around and traveling via the "Fleuve St Laurent" (St Laurent River) were named "Coureurs des bois" ( Woods's "wanderers"/runners) because of the time spend in forest (the woods) searching for furs.
It is a story of a lost love. A white man loved an Indian maiden whose father was a Chief named Shenandoah (or similar spelling) and the Chief would not allow the marriage. Was it a recreation of an actual incident or was a recreation of an old sad love song from old world folklore is not clear (many folk songs are). The river was always the Missourri. It was not unusual for there to be a mix between working European men to marry Iroquois women. (My French grandfather did 7 generations back.) There were river boatmen traveling the Missourri as traders in the late 1700's and onward. The explorers Lewis and Clark hired some of these Missourri boatmen to navigate the Missourri to its source. These French boatmen were considered to be too low down the social ladder to marry most women of European decent. They arranged for a Native American bride.
There is a significant number of voyageur songs. They had nothing to do with the sea. They were needed by people who worked insanely hard, paddling huge canoes over thousands of miles each summer, and portaging 90 pound packs two at a time. One of my 5 great grandfathers co founded one of the 2 major Canadian fur companies, the Northwest Company, so I have always been interested. One thing I learned recently was that if you couldn't get by on only 4 hours of sleep for months on end they didn't want you. BTW, my 5 g grandfather did marry an Ojibwa himself. Their progeny have had a good deal to do with the history of this country. A significant difference between Canada and the U S.
The song is also known as “Across the Wide Missouri” made famous by the Kington Trio. Of course the words vary. The Missouri river flows into the Mississippi River and the Mississippi is the backbone of the US river system. The confluence of the Missouri-Mississippi Rivers is large. My wife and I once live in Maryland Heights Mo. near the confluence. During the 1993 flood I could see the Missouri river water from my back yard. We took a cruise in 2000 on the Mississsippi Queen along the Mississippi River between Hannibul an Cario. The Ms Queen was a steam powered paddle wheeler traveling 11 mph down and 7 mph up stream. It had just won the steam boat race with the Delta Queen. On our way down from Hannibul we had just had lunch in the dinning room we were approaching the confluence. I approched the band that had been playing period music during the dining and requested a song. My wife was right right behind my and she requested a song too. As expected when we began crossing the confluence the band started up with my request, “Across the Wide Missouri”. When we reached the other side on the Missouri, the band blended in my wife’s request, ‘Old Man River”. It was very memorable and people came up to the band afterward and asked the band what the song was.
The Shenandoah family are still the line of chiefs and Matriarchs of the Oneidas. The Song is about a French fur trader who loved Cheif Shenandoahs daughter, but was a wandering canoe fur trader who longed to come back across the Missouri River to rejoin the cheifs daughter. Later folks who didn't understand the song added confusing verses.
The lyrics "...you rolling river..." come from the boils in the river that rise up from the bottom and appear to roll when they break the surface. Boils are caused by a swift current that the Missouri certainly has striking a large and irregular shaped object on the river bottom. I grew up on the Missouri River and have witnessed this phenomenom many times.
Nice breakdown Lexi! When I was researching this tune for a recent medley composition I was surprised that all these years I really knew nothing about it's origin stories. I only had room for two verses in the medley so I went with "my love is across yon rolling water" and "I long to hear you". That longing to hear Chief Shenandoah as the father of a daughter whom the sailor loves and is yearning for. Thanks again for this great history piece!
As a little boy l loved my record albums and l had one that had the track of Shenandoah on it and 50 years later find myself singing or whistling to it.
Was swimming in lake michigan today and this song came into my head and i sang it to the rhthym of my strokes. Thanks for explaining a little of its history.
Well done! This is an exceptional song with a confluence of contributions for its story and distribution. From the articles I've read, the song became known worldwide due to the trading connection. It's about all those things we know it for. I suggest the Mormon Tabernacle or Harry Belafonte versions. However, the original was likely a medium upbeat tempo for working
Lexi thank you for your efforts in explaining the lyrics. I enjoyed reading the comments and what is must had felt like to leave you home for the unknown. The risk vs the reward to the Westward expansion. I have heard as it being sung as a lullaby.
forgot to mention, it was populaer with the Latter Day Saints and others who crossed the Missouri on the way west, many of them coming from the Shenandoah Valley.
The rhythm of Shenandoah is more suited for poling a barge. It makes you think if someone traveling from the Shenandoah's banks or leaving Chief Shenandoah to go trapping "across the wide Missouri."
The French fur traders went far and wide. They trapped all along the Missouri, from the Mississippi valley to the Missouri headwaters along the continental divide. Sacagawea was married to a French trapper/trader, Charbonneau, and helped guide Lewis and Clark westward up the Missouri. Sea shanty, up the Rolling River, barges, large canoes, poling, rowing, all take some coordination. Makes sense. I never understood how the Shenandoah River had anything to do with the "Wide Missouri". Now the song makes sense, and even though the Shenandoah Valley is beautiful, it has nothing to do with the song itself. Thank you for your explanation.
"I sang a song into the air, it fell to earth I know not where. Long afterwards I found the song in the heart of a friend." That is how many songs "travel".
@yellowrose9355 "'I sang a song into the air, it fell to earth I know not where. Long afterwards I found the song in the heart of a friend.' That is how many songs 'travel.'" Thanks for the lovely poem or aphorism.
Yes, it does seem that every version on RU-vid has lyrics that are slightly different. The one that is REALLY different is Connie Dover's - "For seven years I courted Nancy/No other lass would suit my fancy" - I wonder where this one came from, and how widespread it was (if she didn't write it herself 😁 ). Another song I was checking out recently that had widely differing lyrics was "Barbara Allen" - and with this one there were actually lots of variations of two different melodies - one seeming to be American/Appalachian, the other being English/Operatic.
May have been referring to the Missouri territory which included much of the middle of the country. Shenandoah my native valley and the river known as the daughter of the stars. Having been gone for seven years and missing home
It is an exquisitely beautiful melody. I rather suspect that the original lyrics made perfect sense, and that as the song was passed from generation to generation, something got lost and jumbled along the way. We are left with just a sad sense of loss and longing in hearing the song, but not really knowing exactly why we feel that way. Interesting information on the background, good job on your research.
The research I've done shows that Chief Skenandoah supported the British during the Seven Years War (aka the French & Indian War, as it was known here in America). Thus it would be logical for him to forbid his daughter to live a French voyageur. Theoretically, the heartbroken voyageur then left the Great Lakes region and crossed the Missouri River to trap/trade for furs and live a life of solitude and misery without his love, which makes sense. The part that bothers me is the apparant interchanging of the nane Shenandoah for both the father and the daughter.
Folk songs are of course often modified to suit the life and times of the interpreter. You didn't mention the possibility that "daughter" may simply refer to a woman raised in an area. For example, I grew up in New Orleans. It's unique culture formed part of who I am. Even though I live far away now, I might be thought of as a child of New Orleans.
The River 'Shannon' in Ireland is named after the sole 'Male' pre-Christian God figure in Ireland. All other rivers are named after female deities. It drains two thirds of the island. It's the longest river in Ireland and Britain. It's often referred to as An t-Sionann Dubh/An Shennon Doo/The Dark Shannon, for the huge volume of water that drains out into the Atlantic Ocean. Early Spanish explorers moving up the East Coast from Florida encountered tall, fair-skinned people in what might now be called Alabama, who warned the Spaniards against the savage natives. It has been speculated that these people were descendants of Irish people who migrated to the Americas many hundreds of years earlier.
There were no meaningful copyright laws in early America, the State censorship bureau gave permissions to publish within that state. Intellectual property would travel from state to state, each state claiming its own authentic source, each slightly different from the other. Tunes were often written in four or seven shape note systems taught by itinerant, nameless music teachers.
Hi Lexi..... first time viewer here and was interested in the history of this song. Problem is I am totally distracted by the background music and can't quite concentrate on your efforts to explain..... I get easily distracted by country blues music. Maybe it's just me....
Cherokee/Iroquois song we sang here in Texas definitely while I was in school as a child a beautiful song and I always felt sad when we song it an ole so-called black spiritual. We song it all the time, it was in reference to our lands being stolen and our people being misplaced across the great lakes, lyrics as far back as the 1800s.
I love this song so much that I have requested that it be played at my funeral. Thanks for your interpretation of the somewhat mysterious and confusing lyrics. See my comments below about my love and fear of the Missouri River mentioned in the song.
Thanks. I love the song. I tried many times to research it and never felt I got it. Now with your interpretation, I know why. I'm not slow after all.😀The thing that makes the most sense is "Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter". So I conclude it to be a love song of perhaps one of those trappers you mentioned trying to gain approval from Indian Cheif Shenandoah.
I know this is late, but I just saw this and would like to offer a different possible interpretation for this song. I would challenge this is not a sea shanty but a lament. In most versions the song; it isn't a ballad...it's more of a sad air. A little history, when the English take over, there was a horrible period for the French called the 'le grand derangment." It was the forceful expulsion of the French out of Canada into the USA and back to France...or in some cases the English put them on leaky boats and forced them out into the ocean at the point of a gun. The song to me sounds like a person singing about the good old days as they say goodbye to their homeland and leave to an uncertain future.
A lot of music and literature employ double entendres. I think it's both/and not either/or. It's a place (and not so much one specific spot on the map, but a larger sense of place covering all of the areas of which you spoke) and those daughters born of those places of all ethnic backgrounds). Those pioneers and their culture (i.e. music) got around a lot more than we realize.
She is a little confused , if she knew original lyrics she would know chief Shenandoah sold/ traded his daughter to a French fur trader for firewater, probably whiskey it is in 1860 lyrics . They took the Missouri River to the Indian camp.
Lady I don’t think you have the heart , soul or depth of being to explain or feel this song ! This song , this place is felt in the soul , in the heart of the people from here ! You’ll never get it or your whole demeanor would be different ! You wouldn’t be this light and glib if you understood !
In the day the indians ranged further south & West than your depiction. Crossing the wide Missouri would have possibly leaving the territory of Cheif Shenandoah, to more hostile indian territories. And the French Voyagers traveled both further South & West trapping
It’s sure sounds like sea chanty with that call and response going on. If is French Canadian, the Great Lakes are wide bodies of water. If Shenandoah refers to an Oneida Indian chief, it sort of fits in. The Missouri reference must be a meter addition, it’s no where near the Great Lakes or the Oneida.
The entire Louisiana Perchase in cluded much of your 2nd map up and close to the Northwest. It was French, owned until bought by the US from Nepoleon for 2 or 3 million $'s The daughter of Shenandoah likely married a Voyager to solidify their relationship A Chief likely had a number of Children &/or daughters
Why the insistence on French Canadien? For every French Canadien trapper on the Missouri River there were two American trappers. Wouldn't they have come up with a song in French? Has anyone ever heard a French version of this song?
How about this: A Virginian went out west to seek his fortune and was lonesome for his girlfriend left behind in the Shenandoah Valley, near the Shenandoah River?
I think too, a a big Kong tiver like one in Missouri or Potomac River sorrounded of flowering tress field, hills and more Nature beauty, shenandoa is not an indian woman,Its a wilderness of peaceful place tô see, see also Autumnal vídeo, Thank you
This interpretation is WAYYYYYY off. The song is about an Indian Chief's daughter. The setting is along the Missouri River in the Midwest USA. This area was filled with French fur trappers which founded many midwest cities along the Missouri River such as Kansas City and Saint Louis, both founded by French. The trapper in the canoe loved the Indian Chiefs daughter. The Chiefs name was Shenandoah.
Yours fits way more to the text I heard from a german shanty group (yes , german) . I found it also in a songbook from around 1890ish (also a german book) . In this version the singer sings about the red man - the white man - so he must have been black. The story teller/singer could have bin a raffter. A poled rafft is pushed nearly in the same speed as the rhythem. . ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Tm6wsZvmyaQ.html
Sorry to Virginia's Shenandoah folks - but it isn't anything to do with Virginia. There's a town called Shenandoah in Iowa. It is sited on the bank of the Missouri River and is reportedly named for a native american. The song is about voyagers on the Missouri River.
The town of Shenandoah in Iowa was called Fair Oaks until 1870. It was renamed when it was platted and as it grew due to the railroads. The song predates the town's new name by a large margin.
What is considered part of North America? Image result for technically what is considered part of North America The term Northern America refers to the northern portion of the continent. It includes the world's largest island Greenland and the sovereign states of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Countries of the Americas - Nations Online Projec
Many podcasts and even professionally produced radio shows from the CBC or NPR have a habit of playing background music while the talent speaks over this noise. Just for the hell of it, why not try speaking with no background music. It makes it much easier to follow your story and think about the last thing you said -- thus every you say will lead to your last breath.
Young lady, read the comment below and you will most likely see the real meaning. I was having a hard time listening to you for watching your mouth moving. Anyway, I am sure you meant the best.
The two countries are Canada and the United States. They are both in America. Specifically North America. Why does the United States think they are the only America?
@joyspearman6358 For the obvious reason: We're the only nation on the face of the Earth with America in our name. There is no nation of "North America," or "South America." Stop playing as if you didn't know the difference between a country and a continent. It's not cute.
Your profile pic is a literal bird and your over here on RU-vid hiding your face behind a phone or computer screen trying to make yourself feel better by dunking on a RU-vidr for their looks. You probably have a neckbeard the size of Texas
