Leon Shenandoah

Leon Shenandoah (May 18, 1915 – July 22, 1996) was an Onondaga politician who headed the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy from 1968 to his death.

Leon Shenandoah was born on May 18, 1915, in a cabin on Hemlock Creek, New York. He belonged to the Eel Clan of the Onondaga.

On December 7, 1968, Shenandoah became the 235th Tadodaho of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. As Tadodaho, he led the resurgence of the Longhouse Religion among the Haudenosaunee, and he was a great proponent of Onondaga and Haudenosaunee self-rule. On October 24, 1985, he delivered a speech before the United Nations General Assembly in which he compared the United Nations to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and in 1992, he represented the Haudenosaunee at the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples at the Earth Summit. On July 4, 1996, he supervised the repatriation of 74 wampum belts from the Museum of the American Indian.

Shenandoah mainly lived on the Onondaga Reservation near Syracuse, New York.

Early life Leon Shenandoah was born on May 18, 1915.

In 1955, the Onondaga Clan Mothers raised him to become an Onondaga chief.

Shenandoah attended the United Nations General Assembly in 1985 and presented a speech calling for a global ceasefire and general worldwide peace. He was succeeded as Tadodaho by Sidney Hill, another Onondaga Eel Clan member, who currently holds the position. so the accuracy of this claim is questionable.

Many obituaries cite 1969 as the year of his becoming Tadodaho, and one cites it to be 1967,

Different obituaries report Shenandoah as having died either at his home or at Syracuse University Hospital.