Mashantucket — Responding to what it regards as Donald Trump’s disrespect for Native Americans and other groups, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe called Thursday for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate and his supporters “to stop using racist language and offensive actions” against such groups.

In a statement, the tribe, which owns Foxwoods Resort Casino, called Trump’s campaign tactics and behavior “bigoted and ignorant.”

Trump’s attitude toward Native Americans has been on display in recent weeks, chiefly through the repeated airing of his 1993 appearance at a congressional hearing at which he questioned the Mashantuckets’ authenticity.

“They don't look like Indians to me," Trump said at the hearing.

The tribe, in its statement, said Trump’s remarks demonstrated “his proclivity for injecting racial stereotypes into national political discourse.”

In addition, the tribe said, Trump and some of his supporters have shown disrespect for Native Americans at campaign rallies.

Trump has belittled Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s claim to have Indian ancestry, a line of attack that led a radio talk show host, Howie Carr, to mock Warren by simulating a Native American “war whoop” before introducing Trump at a June 29 rally in Bangor, Maine.

The Mashantuckets called such “words and actions” of Trump and his supporters “highly inappropriate, blatantly discriminatory, and no laughing matter.”

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, Hope Hicks, did not respond to an email seeking comment on the tribe’s statement.

“This isn’t just about the Mashantucket Pequots,” Rodney Butler, the tribe’s chairman, said in an interview. “It’s now a national issue — racially charged rhetoric and bigotry. Because we have experience with it, we have an obligation to speak out.

“Native Americans experience this all the time.”

He said other Indian tribes have been looking to the Mashantuckets to say something about Trump following the resurfacing of the clip from 1993 and Trump’s most recent back-and-forth with Warren, the senator from Massachusetts.

“Other tribes were waiting for us to respond,” Butler said.

While Butler was a Montville High School sophomore at the time of Trump’s 1993 appearance before Congress, Richard “Skip” Hayward, the tribal member credited with reviving the Mashantuckets in the 1970s, and George Henningsen, now the chairman of the tribe’s gaming commission, were in the room when Trump spoke.

“Here we are 23 years later and it’s the same thing,” Butler said.

The tribal chairman acknowledged that he will attend next month’s Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

Clinton is considering Warren, among others, as a running mate.

“In a sense, it’s unfortunate,” Butler said of his status as a Clinton delegate, fearing it could undermine the tribe’s message about Trump. “People will say, ‘He’s a delegate for Hillary, it’s a set-up by the Democratic Party.'

“I can tell you I’ve had zero communication with the Democratic Party.”

He said the tribe has long contributed to both major political parties.

Butler said it was ironic that years after insulting the Mashantuckets, Trump became involved with another southeastern Connecticut tribe, the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots.

“We don’t look like Indians and don’t deserve the right to run a casino, and a few years later he’s partnering with our first cousins — and funding them,” he said.

In 1997, Trump, then heavily invested in the casino industry in Atlantic City, signed a contract with the Paucatuck Eastern Pequots of North Stonington, agreeing to bankroll the tribe’s efforts to gain federal recognition and open a tribal casino. In exchange, Trump was to receive a percentage of the casino’s net revenue.

Reportedly, Trump and his business partner in the deal, Amalgamated Industries, supplied more than $14 million to fund the Paucatucks’ recognition bid.

Five years later, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs recognized the Paucatucks and a separate tribal group, the Eastern Pequots, as a single tribe, and Trump was soon left out in the cold. A reconstituted council representing the single tribe voted to reject the Trump contract.

Trump sued over the tribe’s decision to go with different backers, one of whom was William Koch, a billionaire like his more famous brothers, Charles and David Koch. The suit was settled in 2007.

The Eastern Pequots, whose federal recognition was reversed in 2005, declined to discuss their former partner who’s running for president.

“Council decided sometime ago not to comment on Trump,” Katherine Sebastian Dring, the Eastern Pequot Tribal Council’s chairwoman, said in an email.

Asked about its reaction to the Mashantuckets' statement, the Mohegan Tribe, which owns Mohegan Sun, responded without mentioning Trump or his campaign.

"As a sovereign Native American tribe, we are neither Democrats nor Republicans," Kevin Brown, the Mohegan chairman, said. "What we can fortunately say, with certainty, is that there are leaders in both political parties that recognize our sovereignty and the important contributions First Americans have made and continue to make every day. ..."

Butler recalled meeting Trump on the set of “The Apprentice,” Trump’s hit television show.

“Somewhere, there’s a clip of me interacting with him,” Butler said.

On the show, which aired in 2013, teams of celebrities were tasked with decorating a suite at the Barclays Center, the Brooklyn, N.Y., venue with which Foxwoods had a business relationship.

The suite, Butler said, was supposed to “showcase Foxwoods and also highlight our culture.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com