Democrats Return Cash to Impoverished Tribes

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Democratic National Committee announced that it has returned a $107,000 donation from two impoverished Indian tribes on Thursday, saying it could not keep money from a group that thought government influence came only at a price.

The Cheyenne-Arapaho tribes made the donation last year in hopes of winning back 7,500 acres of land seized by the federal government a century ago. To make the contribution, the tribes drained an emergency relief fund.

“There seems to be a link in the minds of the tribes’ members that they needed to give this money in order to be heard on an official government matter,” committee Chairmen Steve Grossman and Roy Romer said in a written statement released in Washington.

“That is not the case, and we cannot retain this money if they believe that to be so,” they said.

The party said it accepted the contribution to help the party expand its American Indian voter registration but returned it because of the tribes’ position on why the donation was made.

The committee also said it was unsure which tribal fund the donation came from. The Interior Department is investigating whether federal money was used to make the political donation.

Charles Surveyor, chairman of the tribal business committee, said he will take the money back.

“I’m not going to turn it down,” Surveyor said late Thursday. Earlier in the day he had said the tribe made the donation in good faith and said he would not accept the money unless forced to by the DNC.

The tribes are seeking land the government took in 1869 to build the now-defunct Ft. Reno. They want to transform the old fort into a tourist attraction.

Some Cheyenne-Arapaho tribal members who say they never consented to the donation have called for a congressional investigation.