An official from Venezuela will visit Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on Thursday, along with a small delegation from the South American nation's oil company, CITGO.

Aloha Nunez, Venezuela's vice minister of indigenous affairs, will meet with tribal officials, stop at the Wounded Knee gravesite, visit homes in the Pine Ridge area and attend a powwow, according to a news release form the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

The vice minister is traveling to the reservation to check with tribal organizations and members who benefited from CITGO's heating-fuel assistance program, as well as to visit the Wounded Knee site, the release said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a member of an indigenous tribe in Venezuela, has offered heating-fuel assistance to Oglala, Cheyenne River and other tribes.