On Saturday, infamous “Squad” member and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said her connection to her “indigenous heritage” was awakened while protesting the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
Ocasio-Cortez made the comments in a reply on Instagram on Saturday.
The Congresswoman said she wanted to connect more with the ancestral roots of the Taíno Indians and that American Indian tribes welcomed her as family.
“One of the things that first started awakening and connecting me in a deep to my indigenous heritage was connecting to the Lakota Sioux at Standing Rock,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“It really just clicked that this is nuts, like, the grace that they extended to say ‘no, you are a relative,’ was really formative for me. While we may not be and come from the same exact lineage, there is a commonality to that ancestry. And it’s important for us to recognize that we were raised and we were told growing up that we were extinct, that Tainos don’t exist, and it’s really important for Puerto Ricans to understand that that narrative is being challenged right now.”
Ocasio-Cortez has also made claims in the past to have Jewish, European, and Black ancestry.
Her comments have a similar air to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s in 2018 when she claimed to have indigenous ancestry. However, she has since apologized for making such outrageous claims.