DURANGO, Colo. (AP) — Leonard C. Burch, the longtime chairman of the Southern Utes and credited with helping to lead the tribe out of poverty, died Friday after a heart attack. He was 69.
Burch died at 6:48 a.m., said Linda Riggle, spokeswoman for Mercy Medical Center in Durango.
"Leonard Burch will go down in history as the Chief Ouray of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in the 20th and 21st century," said Frank E. "Sam" Maynes, general counsel for the tribe since 1968. "He was a giant."
Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar also praised Burch.
"During his many years with the Southern Ute Tribal Council, Leonard's energy and vision were keystones to the historic progress for the Southern Ute Tribe," Salazar said.
For three decades, Burch led the tribe's struggle out of poverty and obscurity to become, by the mid-1990s, one of America's richest and most sophisticated Indian nations and a major power in the Four Corners. He retired as chairman last year.
Under the soft-spoken Burch, the tribe parlayed its energy resources and ties with non-Indian neighbors into an empire with assets of at least $1.5 billion.
After Burch was taken away by ambulance from his Ignacio home, word spread quickly on the 700,000-acre reservation, causing shock and concern among the Southern Utes' roughly 1,400 members.
A longtime spokeswoman for the tribe, Christine Arbogast of the Denver lobbying firm Kogovsek and Associates, said Burch was politically savvy but also a compassionate man full of gentle humor.
"He is one of the most remarkable people I have ever known," she said. "So quiet. So powerful. So much presence."
Burch guided the tribe in its battle with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal agencies to run its own enterprises. One such enterprise, Red Willow Production Co., is among the state's largest natural gas producers.