The San Carlos Apache Tribe and the entire Apache world have lost one of their most remarkable leaders and advocates, Jeanette Clark Cassa.

She passed away at the age of 75 on Oct. 10. A wake and rite of Christian burial were celebrated on Oct. 15 and 16.

Cassa led an active life driven by an abiding will to serve her community. In her later years, her concern for the future of her community and grandchildren and a thirst for knowledge dominated her life. She was very concerned for the younger people in San Carlos and throughout Indian country. It was for them that she worked so hard. She spent what should have been her retirement years learning in minute detail the Apache knowledge and science that has been passed down for thousands of years and the sense of belonging, health and respect that this knowledge provides.

Ten years ago, she founded the Elders' Cultural Advisory Council in San Carlos and served as its coordinator, actively documenting the tribe's traditions and botanical knowledge.

The council, with Cassa as the lead for Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act compliance, ensured the return of Apache sacred objects from museums to be put back in the mountains, according to Apache tradition. The group was so successful that they were nationally recognized for their ground-breaking work. In 2000, the Elders' Council was awarded high honors by Harvard University's Honoring Nations program.

Cassa was also a frequent speaker at cultural and tribal conferences. In 2003, her talk, "Developing Systems to Support the Cultural Way of Life of Your Tribe," was presented to the One Voice for Change Tribal Summit. As the tribe's cultural adviser, she provided opinions to proposals on both tribal lands and adjoining traditional cultural properties based on her vast knowledge of Apache tradition and culture.

In the Gila Valley, Cassa is probably best known for her participation and guidance in the Southeastern Arizona Cultural Internship Program. This summer internship -- hosted by the Bureau of Land Management, the city of Safford, Graham County, Phelps Dodge and the San Carlos Apache Tribe -- gave groups of high school students from Graham and Greenlee counties an opportunity to learn about job opportunities in the area and the diverse cultures in the Gila Valley.

One week of the internship was spent at San Carlos, where participants learned about the tribe's many responsibilities, including forestry and recreation, and issues facing the tribe. Interns also had a chance to receive hands-on experience in the creation of traditional Apache foods and crafts. Cassa was instrumental in the tribe's support of this program.

Cassa was born on March 20, 1929, in Seven Mile Wash to the late Florence Allen Clark and Peter Clark.

She was raised Apache, living in her great grandparents' wickiup. Her childhood was shortened when she and her brothers and sister were orphaned.

She remembered the hunger and cold of childhood, the sense of not belonging after being orphaned, the early responsibility of caring for her younger family and separation from her relatives in Mescalero. She also remembered, however, the warmth of her brothers and sister in their grass bed in the wickiup, the comforting sounds of their great-grandparents next to them, her dear cousins, running outside, the early morning prayers sung before dawn and the respect that they were taught in those early days.

Eventually, with no place for them to stay, the orphans enrolled in a boarding school. After graduation in 1947, Cassa returned home, where she and her husband started a family. They worked various jobs in San Jose and Dallas, eventually returning to San Carlos to stay. She immediately began relearning her Apache language and could read and write in Apache. She helped with many translations and was a certified bilingual educator.

Cassa never lost that sense of respect, caring for others and closeness to the natural world. She often spoke of relationships being the most important thing in Apache life.

To survive and thrive requires that one carefully maintain one's relationships in life. Cassa believed that one has to be brutally honest about one's abilities and shortcomings and consciously combat pride, so that one doesn't harm others. She also believed the relationship with family and friends is important because these are the people that you rely on for help, and they, in turn, rely on you.

Another element of her belief system was the importance of a relationship with the natural world -- the plants, animals, insects, rocks and beings that cover the earth.

Being aware of all these things and treating them with respect ensures that they will be there for you when you need food, medicine, shelter and companionship.

Above all, Cassa believed one must always maintain a relationship with God, giving thanks for life and all the things that sustain us.

Cassa worked hard to gather information from elders to educate tribal members about these relationships, and it was her greatest wish that this information make its way to the Apache communities.

She worked closely with elders from White Mountain, Payson and Camp Verde, documenting their knowledge of plants, animals and elements in the Apache world. She compiled and translated information for future generations to be used in a series of books for tribal members.

Cassa was an outspoken advocate for the preservation of traditional Apache knowledge and wanted these values to guide the community. Her work will ensure that future generations know and cherish these traditions.

Many of Cassa's friends and family members gathered to celebrate her extraordinary life and achievements at a special party in her honor on Sept. 17, 2004, at the San Carlos High School.

Cassa is survived by six daughters, Velma Swift, Janet Pahe and Francelia Cassa of San Carlos, Darlene Singleterry of Jemison, Ala., Carmen Stuart of Newport, Tenn., and Lorna Jean Jones of New Bern, N.C.; two sons, Samuel Cassa of San Carlos and Burnette Dale Cassa of Lompoc, Calif.; one brother, Martinez Clark of Oakland, Calif.; 33 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Burnette, sister, Josephine Russell, and brothers, Christopher and Benedict Clark.