Tribe gives $10,000 to Red Cross

Tribe gives $10,000 to Red Cross

October 4, 2001

The Ute Mountain Ute tribe has announced a donation of $10,000 to the Red Cross New York Relief Fund, and the tribe is challenging other local governments and tribes to match the amount.

"It is a donation to help with victims and a symbol of our nation’s collective solidarity against terrorism," said councilman Art Cuthair about the tribe’s unanimous resolution to send the money.

A sister tribe, the Northern Utes of Utah, sent a tractor-trailer load of bottled water from their tribally owned factory to the rescue effort in New York City. The truck arrived shortly after terrorists obliterated the World Trade Center skyscrapers with hijacked airplanes, killing and injuring thousands of civilians.

The Southern Ute tribe also matched funds raised at a prayer ceremony for the relief effort.

"We are sovereign nation, but a part of the United States also," Cuthair said. "This attack is a threat against both America and American-Indian freedoms so we all need to stand together regardless of our nationality and help out."