Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, or whoever is controlling her account, took to Twitter Thursday to call Senator Patrick Brazeau a "typical colonized indian asshole."
Brazeau, an Algonquin from the Kitigan Zibi reserve in Quebec, has long been critical of fiscal accountability on reserves and was tweeting about the celebrations to end Spence's hunger strike Thursday when the chief's account shot back with the vitriolic tweet.
The post has since been deleted and Spence's camp told Global News that someone else controls the account.
"The comment was not hers, the account was set up by supporters. 3 people had access & not sure who posted that comment," Lowa Beebe, a spokesperson for Spence, tweeted.
Many on Twitter also suggested the insult may have come from someone controlling Spence's account rather than from the chief herself, but others argued it makes little difference. You can see the exchange (and the screenshot of Spence's tweet) as well as reaction in the slideshow below.
Spence had been scheduled to attend a news conference during the morning in Ottawa, but ended up spending much of Thursday in hospital receiving intravenous nutrition to replenish her body after six weeks without solid food.
Events around Ottawa, and the nation, are scheduled today to mark the end of Spence's protest.
The tweet is just the latest controversial remark to trigger allegations of racism within, and toward, the First Nations community.
Over the weekend, Sun News' Ezra Levant confronted protesters in Toronto over his allegedly racist broadcasts.
Last week, an editorial and cartoon in a Manitoba paper were widely denounced as discriminatory, leading to public outrage that prompted a non-apology apology from the editor-in-chief.
Also last week, a group of indigenous women accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of fostering hatred toward aboriginals by failing to condemn racist reactions to the Idle No More movement.
With files from The Canadian Press