{"id":21446,"date":"2025-07-12T00:15:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T00:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/congressional-candidate-in-hot-water-with-southern-utes-over-social-media-post\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:06:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:06:05","slug":"congressional-candidate-in-hot-water-with-southern-utes-over-social-media-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/congressional-candidate-in-hot-water-with-southern-utes-over-social-media-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressional candidate in hot water with Southern Utes over social media post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Hope
Hope Scheppelman, vice chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Committee, carries her sign on Tuesday next to protesters on Main Avenue who showed up to voice their opposition against keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso, Colo, Moms for Liberty, on Tuesday before the start of the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe publicly rebuked Hope Scheppelman, a congressional candidate from Bayfield, for a social media post it says misrepresented the tribe\u2019s political stance and disrespected cultural practices.<\/p>\n

The post, shared on Scheppelman\u2019s personal Instagram account on June 2, shows a Southern Ute ceremonial sweat lodge with the words \u201cPaid for by Hope Scheppelman for Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The image then cuts to a video of a ruddy-faced Scheppelman sitting in her car, apparently after taking part in a sweat ceremony. In the clip, she claims she was invited to participate.<\/p>\n

Scheppelman, a Republican, announced last month she will challenge U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Grand Junction, in Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District. Since then, she has actively promoted her campaign on social media.<\/p>\n

In a statement posted Friday, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe said the post falsely suggested the tribe invited Scheppelman to the ceremony and used the event for campaign purposes, misrepresenting the tribe\u2019s involvement and the nature of the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese actions are not only misleading, but deeply disrespectful and will not be tolerated,\u201d the tribe said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the tribe declined to comment further until the tribe has a chance to speak with Scheppelman.<\/p>\n

In addition to implying tribal endorsement, the inclusion of a photo of the sweat lodge disrespected a sacred cultural practice, according to Friday\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

Sweat ceremonies carry a deep spiritual and cultural significance for the Southern Ute people. The lodges themselves are considered sacred spaces of healing, reflection and renewal.<\/p>\n

\"Scheppelman\"
Scheppelman<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Including the image in a political post for personal gain exploited and tokenized those practices, and demonstrated blatant disregard for their sacred nature, the tribe\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

It is not Scheppelman\u2019s first public controversy.<\/p>\n

She previously drew widespread backlash for her involvement in disputes with Durango School District over the display of pride and Black Lives Matter flags in schools.<\/p>\n

Her time in Republican Party leadership was also marked by internal conflict and public controversy, including an attempt by local Republicans to remove her from a county-level position.<\/p>\n

Scheppelman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.<\/p>\n

jbowman@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

rebukes Hope Scheppelman for Instagram video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,2007,28,561,826,774,1722,629],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-culture-general","tag-headlines","tag-native-american","tag-political-campaigns","tag-political-candidates","tag-regional-elections","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77313,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21446\/revisions\/77313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21446"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}