Newly retired Border Patrol “commander at large” Gregory Bovino once claimed during a legal battle that he was Native American and considered himself part of the Cherokee tribe, despite not being registered with any tribal rolls.
Bovino, 55, whose father was the son of an Italian immigrant, grew up near his mother’s family in North Carolina and strongly identifies with his Appalachian roots, according to The New York Times.
He speaks with a drawl and calls himself a “hillbilly,” according to the Times.
Starting from the time he was 8 years old, he also identified as a Native American and considered himself a member of the Cherokee tribe, despite not being on any tribal rolls, he testified during a court case in 2018.
Later, when he began working at Customs and Border Patrol, he gave out tomahawks to reward top performers, he told the court.
The bizarre revelations emerged as part of a 2018 lawsuit in which Bovino—who was forced out of CBP after the public soured on President Donald Trump’s mass immigration campaign—was accused of discriminatory hiring practices.
Four Border Patrol employees had sued the Department of Homeland Security alleging that Bovino gave preferential treatment to less qualified white male agents.
In court documents, Bovino claimed he actually held minority status as a Native American. The cases were eventually settled.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Bovino for comment.
Bovino’s mother’s family has deep roots in North Carolina’s “High Country,” a mountainous region in the northwest part of the state.
Western North Carolina is home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which has about 13,000 registered members.
Tribal members must have at least 1/16 degree of Eastern Cherokee blood based on the ability to trace a director lineal ancestor to the 1924 Baker Roll, an official register mandated by Congress to establish membership in the tribe.
Bovino has not provided any evidence that he has ancestors on the list.
His claims of Native American ancestry are reminiscent of a scandal involving Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who for years listed herself as a minority on legal registries based on family lore that she had Cherokee and Delaware ancestors.
A 2018 DNA test revealed “strong evidence” of a Native American ancestor dating back six to 10 generations, but Warren was forced to apologize to tribal leaders who said tribal identity was “rooted in centuries of culture and laws” and DNA tests.
Trump has mockingly called Warren “Pocahontas” for years as a result of the scandal.
The Baker Roll was created the same year that Congress passed a law creating strict immigration quotas.
Bovino’s Italian ancestors, however, were able to get around the quota through chain migration, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Greg Bovino’s father, Mike, was the son of an Italian immigrant named Vincenzo who came to the U.S. from Calabria in southern Italy at age 12.
Vincenzo, his mother, and his three siblings were allowed to emigrate in 1927 because their father, Michele, had moved to the U.S. without them in 1909, when there were no restrictions on Italian immigrants, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
But if Bovino’s Italian roots came up during his extensive interviews with the Times, the article didn’t mention it.
