Rep. Alexandria Ocasi0-Cortez is claiming that she’s been “awakened” to ties she allegedly has to a Native American tribe.

In an Instagram video post, the New York self-described “democratic socialist” said her “indigenous heritage” was awakened while protesting the Dakota Access pipeline with Native American tribes at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Responding to a comment, Ocasio-Cortez said she wanted to connect more with the ancestral roots of the Taíno, an indigenous group of the Caribbean, and that American Indian tribes welcomed her as part of their families.

“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 says in the video, which was reported by Fox News.

WATCH:

.@AOC says Native Americans claimed her as a “relative” at Standing Rock. Says she “awakened” to her Native American roots. pic.twitter.com/WnkmjV7QG9

— John Gage (@johnrobertgage) June 4, 2022

“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,” she added.

Fox News went on to note that, over the years, in addition to indigenous and Hispanic roots, Ocasio-Cortez, whose family came to New York City from Puerto Rico, has also claimed to have Jewish, European and black ancestry.

“As is the story of Puerto Rico, we are a people that are an amalgamation,” she told a Queens synagogue in 2018. “We are no one thing. We are Black; we are indigenous; we are Spanish; we are European.”

At Hanukkah event with @JFREJNYC in an moving speech, @Ocasio2018 shares that her family were Sephardic Jews who fled to Puerto Rico. “So many of our destinies are tied beyond our understanding” pic.twitter.com/68bjuCFnDD

— Taly Krupkin (@TalyKrupkin) December 10, 2018

Fox News adds:

Ocasio-Cortez said at the Hannukah service that “a very, very long time ago, generations and generations ago, my family consisted of Sephardic Jews” who escaped forced conversions at the hands of Spanish Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ocasio-Cortez is also a Catholic, which she says has informed her environmental views.

In her Instagram stories Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez explained that Taíno culture has influenced modern American culture and language without being credited, an issue she claimed is linked to colonization. As an example, she pointed to the word “Juracan,” the name of a Taíno deity of chaos and disorder, which formed the root of the word “hurricane.”

She said at the Hannukah service that “a very, very long time ago, generations and generations ago, my family consisted of Sephardic Jews” who escaped being forced to convert at the hands of Spanish Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries. The New York leftist is also a Catholic, which she says has helped inform her environmental views.

In her Instagram post on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez went on to explain that Taíno culture has influenced modern American culture and language without being credited, which she blamed on ‘colonization.’ To give an example, she cited the word “Juracan,” which is the name of a Taíno deity of chaos and disorder and formed the root of the word “hurricane.”