US Senator Elizabeth Warren has released a DNA test showing "strong evidence" she has Native American heritage.
US President Donald Trump challenged Senator Elizabeth Warren to prove her Native American ancestry. Photo: AFP or licensors
Ms Warren is regularly ridiculed by President Trump as "fake Pocahontas" for having claimed to be of Native American descent.
She has said she is considering running for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2020.
Mr Trump has challenged her to take a DNA test and offered to pay a million dollars to her favourite charity if she did.
In a statement, Ms Warren said she never thought her heritage would come under attack and her parents would be described as liars.
She has asked Mr Trump to send the donation to the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center.
Mr Trump denied having made the dare.
"I didn't say that," he said as he left Washington to visit hurricane-stricken areas of Florida and Georgia.
In response, Ms Warren posted a video of his remarks in Montana on Twitter with the caption, "This is what lying looks like."
She asked, "Having some memory problems, @realDonaldTrump? Should we call for a doctor?"
Ms Warren said she learned about her ethnic and cultural heritage from her parents.
"When I decided to run for Senate in 2012, I never thought that my family's Native American heritage would come under attack and my dead parents would be called liars," she said.
"And I never expected the president of the United States to use my family's story as a racist political joke."
The analysis of Ms Warren's DNA was done by Carlos Bustamante, a Stanford University professor. He concluded that most of the senator's DNA shows European ancestry but that it has a Native American segment.
Mr Trump's use of the name "Pocahontas" refers to a 17th century Native American woman who played a role in the English colony in Jamestown, Virginia. Trump's mocking reference has drawn criticism from Native American groups.
- RNZ/ REUTERS
