[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 13, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14280-S14281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

                    REMEMBERING CHIEF RALPH STURGES

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I wish to mark the passing of a true 
Connecticut leader and a great benefactor of his people: Ralph Sturges, 
chief of the Mohegan Indian tribe. Chief Sturges was 88.
  At various times in his long life, Ralph was a deliveryman, a public 
relations director, a Civilian Conservation Corps worker, a noted 
marble sculptor, and a World War II Bronze Star winner--but he found 
his greatest purpose late in life, leading and reviving Connecticut's 
Mohegan tribe.
  Ralph's work on behalf of the Mohegans--who have called New England 
home for more than four centuries--was unflagging and successful at 
long last. When he first sought Federal recognition for the tribe, the 
Government replied that the Mohegans had ceased to exist in the 1940s. 
That rang clearly false to Ralph, who knew firsthand that the Mohegan 
identity was still alive; and under his leadership, the tribe pushed 
until it was finally recognized in 1994.
  The Mohegans were only the ninth tribe ever to be recognized on the 
basis of documentary evidence--evidence which Ralph and other Mohegan 
leaders were tireless in collecting. The chairman of the neighboring 
Mashantucket Pequot tribe called his efforts ``an inspiration to native 
peoples everywhere.'' The Mohegans honored Ralph by naming him chief 
for life.
  But Ralph was more than a cultural guardian; he was also a shrewd 
businessman. He understood that a prosperous tribe was more likely to 
survive into his children's and grandchildren's generations, and 
beyond; and so he negotiated to build the Mohegan Sun casino on tribal 
land.
  Its popularity testifies to Ralph's economic leadership, and its 
profits pay for health care and college tuition for all Mohegans. Ralph 
was proud of the casino's success and spoke plainly

[[Page S14281]]

about the incentive it created for Mohegans to maintain their cultural 
identity: ``Because Indians are making money, now it's a privilege to 
be one.''
  The casino offered the means; but the end was always clear, and it 
was the end to which Ralph dedicated decades of his life: bringing back 
a people that had seemed on the verge of fading away. Ralph dealt 
cannily with Wall Street investors--but took more pleasure in spending 
afternoons raking the leaves from his tribe's ancient burial ground.
  He was a proud product of two cultures, Indian and Western, 
comfortable in either, taking the best from both. ``What probably 
happened is my father's people were rowing ashore on the Mayflower and 
my mother's people were probably on the shore throwing stones,'' Ralph 
once joked.
  He will be remembered as an artist, a businessman, and a wise chief, 
presiding over his tribe with a feathered talking-stick in one hand and 
a gavel in the other. The cultures he represented in either hand--and 
our whole State of Connecticut--are united in honoring Chief Ralph 
Sturges.

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