From Venezuelans' hearts to ours

By Kim Swaney

HELENA — There was no better time to warm the hearths and hearts on 10 Indian reservations in Montana and South Dakota, than during Valentine's week. On Monday, Citizens Energy through CITGO Petroleum Corporation and its Discounted Heating Oil Program dispersed more than $1.6 million to all seven Indian Tribes in Montana and three from South Dakota.

When CITGO representatives met with tribes from Montana in December at KwaTaqNuk Resort in Polson, they had assured the tribes that the agreement to provide energy assistance to some of the nation's poorest was binding despite the political heat between CITGO's owner - the Venezuelan government and its President Hugo Chávez and U.S. President, George W. Bush.

CITGO's Discounted Heating Oil Program has been warming homes in 18 states. It intends to distribute 100 million gallons of heating oil at a 40 percent discounted rate that could potentially benefit 1.2 million people including 200 American Indian tribes. Teresa Wall-McDonald, who was unable to attend the ceremony given in Helena this week, along with Kate McDonald, who was also unable to attend, paved the way for the ten tribes who graciously accepted the donations.

"No one ever gives us money without having strings attached" said Earl Old Person, Chairman of the Blackfeet Tribe. It was just like Christmas for the dignified leader and its people.

In Lower Brule, South Dakota, there's been an absence of snow, but bitter cold has prevailed with temperatures below zero for most of the winter. The money accepted by its Chairman Michael Jandreau, said it would warm approximately 350 households and 1,500 people of Lower Brule.

Here on the Flathead Indian Reservation, over 900 eligible families will receive a surge from the CITGO Company. Not only will the funds, accepted by Vice Chair Carole Lankford, help families, it will help warm the hearths at Salish Kootenai Housing Authority's Transitional Living Center, Safe Harbor, Second Circle Lodge and the Ronan Bread Basket, to name a few.

The Salish and Kootenai Tribes are proud to support the CITGO donation to Montana's Indian households. CSKT volunteered to act as the "host Tribe" and to make contacts with all other state Tribes to facilitate the awarding of the extra energy assistance to native families.

CSKT Tribal Chairman, James H. Steele, Jr., expressed gratitude for the generosity of the CITGO donation, which will provide financial relief for other unmet needs.

"The effort to reach all tribes in Montana is greatly appreciated and demonstrates the ability of the Tribes to work cooperatively for the benefit of all tribal families," Steele said.

"I've been on an eighth of a tank of oil for a while. I have to chose between my phone bill and my oil bill, especially when #2 oil is running $2.409 per gallon - and that's only if I buy more than 100 gallons at a time," says an employed tribal member who is a single-parent living in Ronan.

Following the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf, a dozen U.S. Senators on October 27, 2005, including John Kerry, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Harry Reid, Jack Reed and Edward Kennedy, urged oil companies to use their profit earnings to assist the elderly and the poor; only one company responded. That was CITGO.

Less than a year later, they had delivered more than 2 million barrels of diesel, jet fuel and gasoline to alleviate shortages and price hikes at the pumps, stated CITGO officials.

Florida's Congressman, Connie Mack (R), has been critical this week of Citizens Energy, the non-profit company whose chairman and president is former Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Kennedy, II; the son of the late U. S. Senator Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy.

"If your moral indignation requires that we not accept the discount oil to distribute to our most vulnerable families, then that same high moral standard should require that you not drive your car because it, too, probably uses gasoline made from Venezuelan oil. Nor should you be willing to fly to Washington because the airlines are using Venezuelan jet fuel. Heaven forbid that critics of our program stay warm with Venezuelan heating oil as they compose diatribes against charity," responded Kennedy in a letter to Congressman Mack on Monday.

Kate McDonald acknowledged on Tuesday that they were aware of the all publicity regarding Chávez but did not want to 'look a gift horse in the mouth', especially when it's over a million dollars.

Ráfel Gomez, Vice President, Strategic Shareholders with CITGO conveyed on Monday that he didn't understand why America would treat its first Americans like its last Americans.

"We did not have to look too far north to see that there were people who needed our help," Gomez said.

CITGO recently donated five million dollars to expand the Southwest Louisiana Center for Health Services (SWLA) in Lake Charles, which serves the uninsured and other people in need. CITGO is the largest corporate sponsor of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

For more information found on the web, visit: www.progressive.org/mag_intv0706 or www.citizensenergy.com or www.citgo.com.