Treatment of Native Americans: Opposing Tribal Sovereignty as a Business Competitor, Questioning Racial Identity, and Using Slurs at a Ceremony Honoring Veterans
Tier 3Documented1993-10-05 to 2017-11-27
Factual Summary
Donald Trump's documented interactions with Native Americans span more than two decades and reflect a pattern of treating tribal nations as business competitors, questioning the racial identity of tribal members, and using a Native American name as a political slur in a setting meant to honor Native American veterans.
In October 1993, Trump testified before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Native American Affairs regarding tribal gaming operations. Trump, who operated casinos in Atlantic City at the time, opposed the expansion of tribal casinos, arguing that they were not adequately regulated and that organized crime had infiltrated tribal gaming operations. During the hearing, Trump told the subcommittee, referring to members of a Connecticut tribe: "They don't look like Indians to me." Representative George Miller of California rebuked Trump, telling him that his remarks were "about as racist as anything" he had heard in his career. Trump also questioned whether tribal members were "really Indians," suggesting that their appearance did not match his expectations of what a Native American should look like.
Trump's opposition to tribal gaming was not rooted in regulatory concerns but in business competition. Internal documents and reporting from the period showed that Trump lobbied against tribal casinos because they threatened his Atlantic City market share. In 2000, Trump's casino company paid $250,000 to settle claims by the New York State Lobbying Commission that it had secretly funded anti-tribal-gaming advertisements in New York State. The ads, which depicted drug use and crime, were designed to turn the public against a proposed tribal casino in the Catskills that would have competed with Trump's Atlantic City properties.
On November 27, 2017, President Trump hosted a White House ceremony honoring Navajo Code Talkers, the Native American veterans who used the Navajo language to create an unbreakable code during World War II. During the ceremony, with the elderly veterans standing behind him, Trump referred to Senator Elizabeth Warren as "Pocahontas," a nickname he had repeatedly used to mock Warren's disputed claims of Native American ancestry. The remark was made in front of a portrait of President Andrew Jackson, who signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the forced relocation of Native Americans known as the Trail of Tears. The National Congress of American Indians condemned Trump's use of the name, stating that "Pocahontas is a real person" and calling the use of her name as a slur "disrespectful to her legacy" and to Native peoples.
Primary Sources
1. Congressional hearing transcript, House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Native American Affairs, October 5, 1993
2. C-SPAN video archive of Trump's 1993 congressional testimony
3. New York State Lobbying Commission settlement, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, 2000
4. White House video and transcript of Navajo Code Talkers ceremony, November 27, 2017
Corroborating Sources
1. Washington Post: "'They don't look like Indians to me': Donald Trump on Native American casinos in 1993," July 1, 2016
2. National Congress of American Indians statement condemning Trump's use of "Pocahontas" at Navajo Code Talkers event, November 27, 2017
3. New York Times: "Trump Used Donations to Tribes to Fight Them," July 2000
4. NBC News: "Trump Uses 'Pocahontas' Jab at Native American Event," November 27, 2017
Counterarguments and Context
Trump defended his 1993 testimony as expressing legitimate concerns about regulation of tribal gaming and denied that his remarks were racially motivated. His supporters argued that questioning the legitimacy of tribal gaming operations was a matter of public policy rather than prejudice. Regarding the "Pocahontas" comment, Trump's defenders argued he was criticizing Elizabeth Warren for claiming Native American heritage she could not substantiate, and that his target was Warren rather than Native Americans as a group. Some of Warren's critics, including some Native Americans, shared Trump's criticism of her ancestry claims. However, using the name "Pocahontas" as a slur at a ceremony specifically intended to honor Native American veterans, and doing so in front of those veterans and beneath a portrait of the president most associated with the forced removal of Native Americans, demonstrated a disregard for the setting, the honorees, and the historical weight of the moment. The 1993 testimony, in which Trump questioned whether tribal members "look Indian," is documented in the congressional record and reflects a willingness to challenge the racial identity of indigenous peoples in a federal proceeding.
Author's Note
This entry is classified as Tier 3 because the incidents described are documented through congressional testimony, White House video, and regulatory records. The 1993 testimony, the anti-tribal lobbying campaign and subsequent settlement, and the 2017 Navajo Code Talkers incident are each independently documented. Taken together, they establish a pattern spanning more than two decades in which Trump treated Native Americans and their sovereignty as obstacles to his business interests and used Native American identity as a tool for political insult.