UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) – Gladys Tantaquidgeon, the matriarch and medicine woman of the Mohegan Tribe, was praised for her devotion to her heritage as she was interred Sunday in a traditional Native American ceremony on the Shantok burial ground.

Tantaquidgeon died Tuesday at age 106.

“It is very difficult for me to say goodbye,” Ed Sarabia, head of the state’s Indian Affairs division, told about 300 mourners. “I don’t want to, but it’s something called fate. Our creator decides that for us.”

The ceremony began at the Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum, which Tantaquidgeon helped establish in 1931.

Mourners walked the 1-mile route to Shantok, dressed in traditional clothing and singing songs of gathering, traveling and honor in their native language. Sweetgrass and sage also were burned during the procession.

Tantaquidgeon’s ashes were carried to her grave by Mohegan Tribal Chairman Bruce “Two Dogs” Boszum, former chairmen Mark Brown and Roland Harris and others.

At the graveside ceremony, Indian leaders from around the country spoke of her devotion to her tribe and Indian heritage.

“This woman has taught many things in her years,” said Sherman Paul of the Maliseet Indian Tribe in northern Maine. “She was a great woman who deserves the best from all of us.”

Butch Lydem, of the Schaghticoke Tribe in New York, remembered Tantaquidgeon as a tireless worker with other tribes in the nation.

“When I was a young boy … Gladys would tell me that everything elders tell you, to listen,” he said. “Now that I’m older, I tell children today to listen to elders. There’s not enough writing to express the pride and gratitude I have.”

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also spoke and was joined by Montville Mayor Joseph Jaskiewicz and representatives of Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Sens. Joe Lieberman and Christopher Dodd.

Born in 1899, Tantaquidgeon was a 10th generation descendant of Uncas, the famed Mohegan chief.

During her lifetime, she saw her tribe grow from a few Mohegan families who struggled to keep their tribal heritage to a federally recognized tribe that owns and operates an enormously successful casino.

Tantaquidgeon, who collected numerous tribal documents, is given much credit for the Mohegans receiving federal recognition.

The information helped document the continuity of the tribe.