National Native leaders, N.M. politicans react to President Trump’s comments Monday.

Local politicians and national Native leaders respond to Trump’s comments:

“The days when the President of the United States was held as a moral authority around the world were over 11 months ago, but at what should have been a solemn ceremony to honor Native veterans, Donald Trump took low even lower.” — U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M.

“It was our Code Talkers that ensured the freedom of the United States and that’s what is important to remember here.” — Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye

“It is not up to President Trump to determine who is Native, and who isn’t. When it comes to people of color, his disdain and disrespect has been loud and clear.” — Deb Haaland, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress and member of Laguna Pueblo

“We honor the contributions of Pocahontas, a hero to her people, the Pamunkey Indian Tribe in Virginia, who reached across uncertain boundaries and brought people together. Once again, we call upon the President to refrain from using her name in a way that denigrates her legacy.” — Jefferson Keel, lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation and president of the National Congress of American Indians, which asked Trump earlier this year to stop describing Sen. Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas

“Today’s racially derogatory remarks by President Trump regarding Senator Warren are mean-spirited, insulting and impossible to interpret as anything other than a slur against an entire people. They are beneath the dignity of the office that Mr. Trump holds and are especially insensitive given the setting in which they were delivered, one designed to honor the Navajo Code Talkers’ role in World War II.” — U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico

“The reference is using a historic American Indian figure as a derogatory insult and that’s insulting to all American Indians.” — John Norwood, general secretary of the Alliance of Colonial Era Tribes