The Southern Ute Indian Tribe said Friday that Republican congressional candidate Hope Scheppelman “inaccurately” claimed the tribe invited her to attend a sweat ceremony earlier this month and misrepresented the event in online campaign posts.

In a strongly worded statement, the tribe condemned “the exploitation and tokenization of our people, culture, language, and sacred ceremonies for personal or political purposes.”

The tribe added: “These actions are not only misleading, they are deeply disrespectful and will not be tolerated.”

Scheppelman, a former vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party and former La Plata County GOP official, is mounting a primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, which covers most of the Western Slope and parts of Southern Colorado.

On July 1, Scheppelman posted a nearly minute-long campaign video to X describing her participation in a sweat ceremony on the Southern Ute Reservation in the southwest part of the state. She also thanked the Southern Ute Indian Tribe “for welcoming me back into the circle.”

An apparently sweat-drenched Scheppelman said in a post that linked to her campaign video: “Tonight was a powerful reminder of the strength of tradition, the importance of community, and the beauty of shared culture. I’m deeply grateful — until next time.”

She concluded the post with a series of hashtags, including #SouthernUte, #Community, #Respect and #Tradition.

By Friday afternoon, both the candidate’s tweet and the attached video had been deleted from the social media site, according to a message displayed on X.

Scheppelman also referenced the sweat ceremony in a July 7 tweet that summarized a week’s worth of campaign travels across the district: “Met with elected officials and ended the day with a powerful and humbling experience at the sweat lodge with the Southern Ute Tribe.”

Tribal Chairman Melvin J. Baker said in a written statement released on Friday that Scheppelman’s posts “inaccurately suggested that the Tribe had issued an invitation to the ceremony and have since been used as campaign material, further misrepresenting the nature of the event and the Tribe’s involvement.”

In a written statement late Friday, Scheppelman said that she regretted “any confusion” caused by her posts and hadn’t meant to imply anything about the tribe’s relationship with her campaign, calling her visit to the ceremonial sweat lodge “deeply personal.”

Scheppelman said she’d been invited to return to the lodge by a tribal elder who helped her recover from addiction “many years ago.”

“Returning to that space after 16 years of sobriety was profoundly meaningful for me, and I was honored to be welcomed back into the circle during the sweat lodge,” she said. “At no point did I intend to imply that I was there in any official capacity or that I had received a formal endorsement from the Tribal Council. My intention in the short video I shared was to express my heartfelt gratitude to one of my former counselors and to honor the people who helped guide me into a new life of recovery.”

Scheppelman added that she is “grateful for the role the Tribe played in my healing journey,” and continues “to hold space for dialogue, mutual understanding, and working together in a spirit of respect.”

“Sweat ceremonies hold deep spiritual and cultural significance for our people,” Baker, the tribal chairman, said in Friday’s statement. “They are sacred spaces of healing, reflection, and renewal. While certain ceremonies may be open to the broader community, we ask that all visitors approach them with reverence, honoring the traditions and protocols that guide these sacred practices.”

Individual tribal members “do not represent the official views or position of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe,” the tribe’s statement noted. It concluded by asking candidates who are seeking support or who want to meet with the Tribal Council to contact Baker’s office directly.

Scheppelman declared she was challenging Hurd in June, calling the incumbent a “liberal Republican” beholden to the party’s “donor class.”

A spokesman for Hurd, who was elected to his first term in November and chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs, declined to comment.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include Scheppelman’s response.