MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - When the Venezuelan-owned Citgo Petroleum Corp. approached Minnesota's Chippewa tribe with a gift of roughly $1.7 million in heating assistance, members of the tribe's six bands raised a collective eyebrow.

"There are a lot of people who offer things to Indians," said Winona LaDuke, a member of the White Earth band and director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project. "I see a lot of snake oil salesmen coming to Indian country."

But the deal proved genuine: Texas-based Citgo dispensed millions of gallons of heating oil last year to roughly 181,000 American households in need in the Northeast and is expanding the program this winter, according to the company's Web site.

Still, there were the political connotations of accepting fuel from a firm owned by Venezuela's state oil company, which has a direct link to President Hugo Chavez, who famously called President Bush "the devil" during a United Nations speech.

Chavez's criticism of U.S. policies was enough for a few native villages in Alaska to reject offers of heating assistance from Citgo earlier this year.

Wayne Bohn, an attorney for the Leech Lake Chippewa band, said the politics of the deal were "hotly debated," but the tribe didn't see the point in taking a similar stand against the gift.

"We're not a wealthy tribe," Bohn said. "We could make a political statement, but making a political statement while your people freeze is not very wise."

With Citgo's donated money, the six bands will pay heating providers on the reservations. Households on Chippewa reservations are heated with a variety of fuels - which include propane, natural gas, electric, heating oil and wood.