Colleen Keane Obituary

Colleen Ann Keane



Colleen Ann Keane, 74, beloved mother and friend, passed away on Oct. 26, 2023. Colleen was born June 3, 1949, in Detroit, Michigan to her father Barney Keane, who was from rural Ireland, and to her mother Jovita Tolksdorf, from a ranch in Montana.



Colleen had a lifelong dedication to working with indigenous rights and advocacy. Since 1973, she worked with native communities throughout the Southwest, including the Navajo Nation, Acoma Pueblo, Santo Domingo Pueblo, Salt River Pima-Maricopa and the Los Angeles Indian Center as a radio and television producer, grant writer, social worker, and teacher.



During the 10 years preceding her death, she was a journalist for the Navajo Times. During the 1970s, she directed educational programs to implement the Indian Child Welfare Act in an effort to reunite Native American children with their families and tribes while teaching broadcast journalism at the Alamo Navajo and Rock Point community schools in AZ and NM. In 1987, she wrote, produced, and directed the award-winning film, The River That Harms, an investigative study of the largest radioactive wastewater spill in U.S. history that had taken place on Navajo land.



Colleen is the author of the 2021 book, Crashing an American Wake.



She held two Master's degrees, one in Social Work from ASU and another in Broadcast Journalism from USC. She is survived by her daughter, Joanna Keane Lopez.