This is from a Google search on "Shenandoah song". I always heard it was about the Indian Chief Shenandoah/Skenendoah, who if I recall correctly, was from New York and Iroquois. Eric

Shenandoah  

Composer Anonymous 
Lyricist Anonymous 
Year Published   
Type Traditional 
Comments Few sea chanteys originated in this country since we were a brand new nation in the days of sailing vessels, but "Shenandoah" is genuinely American. The song seems to have originated in the early nineteenth century as a land ballad in the areas of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, with a story of a trader who fell in love with the daughter of the Indian Chief Shenandoah. This enchanting song was taken up by sailors plying these rivers in keel and Mackinaw boats, and thus made its way down the Mississippi to the open ocean. The song had great appeal for American deep-sea sailors, and its rolling melody made it ideal as a capstan chantey, where a group of sailors push the massive capstan bars around and around in order to lift the heavy anchor.

The song reached its first height of popularity perhaps a little before the 1840's, the beginning of the fast clipper ship era that added so much to American growth. The song was traditional with the U.S. Army cavalry who called it "The Wild Mizzourye."

When steamboats replaced the sailing vessels, sailors and landlubbers alike were reluctant to give up this best-of-all chanteys, and so it has remained to this day one of our most beautiful and popular folk songs. 
The American Song Treasury, p. 81
 
Background music: Cotemporary arrangement by Carrie Kraft, Belwin-Mills Publishing Corp., 1996. 


Eric G. Grundset

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