Linda Joyce Tsonetokoy

Linda Joyce Tsonetokoy, 67, of Carnegie, OK passed away quietly from this existence at 5:20p.m., at her daughter's home in Ft. Cobb, OK. She had been fighting pancreatic cancer for three months and had undergone chemo therapy and was under Hospice care. She lost her battle with cancer on Friday November 30th, 2012 with her family at her bedside. Linda grew up in the Kiowa community around Carnegie, OK most of her life. She attended the Carnegie Schools up until the fourth grade, until her family moved to the Alden community. She attended school at Alden up until the eighth grade and was the 1960 valedictorian before re-attending Carnegie Schools. Linda graduated from Carnegie School in 1964 then attended Haskell Institute in Lawrence, KS and graduated from Haskell in 1966. She was immediately employed by the U.S. Government and began work in Rockville, MD where she worked for thirty years with the Health, Education, and Welfare Department as a governmental analyst interpreting "governmental legalese" until she retired in 1997 as a GS-13. After her retirement, Linda returned home and began to take part in her Kiowa culture. She participated in numerous contest pow-wows throughout the United States. Linda had won first place in dozens of contests throughout the U.S. competing in the Lady's Southern Buckskin Golden Age category. She was also an advocate for the preservation of traditional Kiowa culture and history. Linda practiced and perpetuated her traditional Kiowa Bead work which she learned from her mother and became a highly skilled craftsperson. Due to her years spent on the pow-wow circuit she has several adopted children and an army of friends and admirers. In addition to this, Linda creates the most beautiful works of art via her talent in traditional Kiowa Bead work. her bead work talent rivals that of her own mother, Grace Lone Bear Tsonetokoy. Due to this legacy, Linda has coined this distinctive Kiowa Bead work style as the "Tsonetokoy Family Style". This style is now copied by dozens of people who participated and contest at annual pow-wows throughout "Indian Country". Linda is the third child of Grace Lone Bear Tsonetokoy and Fred " Buster" Tsonetokoy. Her paternal grandparents are Helen Tawkoyty and Francis Tsonetokoy while her maternal grandparents are "Sate-Pi-Gaw" (Lone Bear) and "Khune-Ahaw-Gyah" (Took The Staff). She is a great-great-granddaughter of the renown "Tau-Haw-Sin" (Little Mountain or Over-Hanging Butte) who led the Kiowa people from 1833, "The Year the Stars Fell", to the winter of 1866 when he died.
Linda Joyce Tsonetokoy was born on December 18th, 1945 and passed from this world on November 30th, 2012.

Survivors include her two daughters, Jacqueline Tsonetokoy, Carnegie, OK
Leatrice Tsonetokoy, Ft. Cobb, OK
one adopted daughter, Laura "Wah-Wah" Tsonetokoy, Ft. Cobb, OK
her ninety two year old mother, Grace Lonebear Tsonetokoy, Carnegie, OK
two sisters, Patricia Tsonetokoy Bointy, Anadarko, OK
Geneva Tsonetokoy Walker, Carnegie, OK
one adopted sister, Lu Lookingglass, Alburquerque, NM
two brothers, Dewey Tsonetokoy Sr., Carnegie, OK
Ross Tsonetokoy, Carnegie, OK
four grandsons, Jalin Goodwill, Jaxon Tsonetokoy, Isaac Tsonetokoy, Marlin Goombi III
one granddaughter, Gracie Tsonetokoy

She was preceded in death by her father, niece, Leslie Tsonetokoy

Wake Service: 6:00p.m., Monday, December 03, 2012
Funeral Service: 11:00a.m., Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Both services will be held at Cedar Creek United Methodist Church, Carnegie, OK
Burial will follow at Carnegie Cemetery
under the direction of Ray & Martha's Funeral Home