ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a DNA test this month claiming distant Native American heritage, she set off criticism both from indigenous groups who considered it an offensive ploy and Republicans like President Trump, who’s repeatedly mocked the Massachusetts Democrat as “Pocahontas.”

But indigenous leaders say the brouhaha has overshadowed a more significant trend: More Native American candidates are running for office in California and around the country this year than any election cycle in recent memory, many of them spurred in part by Trump’s racially charged rhetoric.

Several could notch historic firsts, including Deb Haaland, a New Mexico activist and member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe who’s favored to win a Democratic-leaning seat in Albuquerque and become the first Native American woman ever elected to Congress.

“Native Americans haven’t been at the table when important decisions are being made about our future,” Haaland said in an interview this month at her small, busy campaign office. “The significance for me is that if I’m the first, that means there’ll be more people to follow.”

Haaland, whose parents served in the military and met in the Bay Area at the Treasure Island naval base, could share the first Native woman in Congress distinction with Sharice Davids, an ex-mixed martial arts fighter and Ho-Chunk Nation member who’s running in a competitive Kansas congressional district.

Both candidates, unabashed progressives, have run campaigns highlighting their identities, with Haaland declaring in her ads that “Congress has never heard a voice like mine.”

Native Americans could also make history in other races across the country. In California, two Native American candidates are running for the State Assembly, including San Bernardino County Democrat James Ramos, who’s in one of the most closely-watched Assembly races in the state.

Oklahoma Republican Kevin Stitt and Idaho Democrat Paulette Jordan could each be the first Native American governor in the continental U.S.

Several of the Golden State’s 109 tribes have helped support Native American candidates around the country. Tribes operating casinos are some of California’s largest political donors, and typically favor incumbents from both parties who hold sway over gambling regulations, taxation and funding and other key issues. “They usually look at it as a business would, rather than a tribal community,” said Mark Trahant, editor of the news site Indian Country Today, who’s tracked indigenous candidates over the years.

But this year, several California tribes donated tens of thousands to Haaland’s campaign, boosting her in a competitive primary, and also helped bankroll the first-ever Super PAC dedicated to electing more Native American candidates. The group, 7Gen Leaders, spent more than $180,000 on digital and TV ads backing Haaland, and plans to launch similar efforts to support Davids over the next three weeks. The PAC’s name is inspired by the Native American concept that decisions made in the present impact seven generations in the future.

“A lot of the communities where we’re from don’t have somebody to look up to as a child or young adult, especially in politics,” said Xavier Barraza, the group’s co-founder and a member of California’s Pomo tribe, who grew up on a Mendocino County reservation. “We wanted to change that.”

On a more grassroots level, Haaland and Davids’ campaigns have also gotten a helping hand from Native American volunteers from around the country.

Haaland isn’t a typical politician: A single mom who once lived on food stamps and talks on the campaign trail about being 30 years sober, she first got involved in politics as a volunteer helping register Native voters and driving them to the polls across far-flung pueblos. She led Native American organizing in the state for Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor, and chaired New Mexico’s Democratic Party.

Now, as she campaigns on issues like abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Haaland has connected her family’s experience to modern debates like the Trump administration’s policy separating migrant kids from their parents. Both her grandparents were yanked from their families and sent to a boarding school in Santa Fe, part of a system of schools that worked to erase Native culture and assimilate younger generations.

“It’s like we’re reliving this horrible history that’s repeating itself,” Haaland said.

She and other activists credit the jump in Native candidates around the country in part to the galvanizing force of anti-pipeline protests at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota two years ago, which brought together thousands of indigenous people from tribes around the country. Haaland was one of them, advising local leaders and bringing New Mexican tortillas and green chile to feed demonstrators.

More Native candidates are also running as Trump has courted controversy with comments about indigenous people — most notably, his frequent stump speech references to “Pocahontas” as a way to mock Warren.

Warren’s DNA test last week showed “strong evidence” that she had a Native American ancestor between six and 10 generations back. But the move did nothing to halt Trump’s Twitter taunts. And while Warren isn’t claiming citizenship in any tribe, she also annoyed many Native Americans, who base tribal membership on genealogical and not chromosomal evidence.

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Trump using ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur is part of her sad, 400-year history as a pawn Haaland said she was disappointed that the controversy had drowned out other Native American stories. But she voiced support for Warren, and argued that the senator’s revelation about her heritage should be “celebrated.”

Trump “doesn’t get to decide who’s Native,” she said. “It’s not up to him.”