US President Donald Trump is under fire for invoking one of the nation's worst massacres of Native Americans to poke fun at Democrat Elizabeth Warren.


In a tweet shared by almost 20,000 people, Mr Trump said the 2020 presidential hopeful, who claims to be part Native American, should shoot a political advertisement from "Bighorn or Wounded Knee".
"If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash!" the tweet read, alongside an accompanying video of Ms Warren.
Up to 300 men, women and children were killed by cavalry in the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, while the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were pitted against troops in the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Wounded Knee is now recognised as one of the worst Native American massacres in US history, with Congress issuing a formal apology to the victims a century later, expressing "deep regret".
Mr Trump's comments prompted a fierce rebuke from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), which condemned the "casual and callous use of these events as part of a political attack".

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Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump


If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash!
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"Hundreds of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho people lost their lives at the hands of the invading US Army during these events," NCAI president Jefferson Keel said in a statement.

Chairman of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Rodney Bordeaux went on to "condemn President Trump's racist and disrespectful tweet about this brutal incident".
"He should apologise immediately to the people of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and other Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations for his shameful and ignorant misstatement," he said.
Mr Trump has long derided Ms Warren, a Democratic senator, as "Pocahontas" over her claims about her heritage.
Native American leaders have called Mr Trump's past attacks on Ms Warren offensive and distasteful.
Ms Warren is yet to comment on the latest barb.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-...cised/10716010