His side of the story: Nathan Phillips wants to talk about Covington
Footage of Phillips and a Magga-hatted teenager became the center of a national controversy. Here, the Native elder opens up about what came before this life-changing moment
On a rainy Thursday morning, Nathan Phillips of the Omaha nation and I met for an interview over breakfast at Le Caprice, a family-owned Mexican bakery in Washington DC. Phillips had slept just one hour the night before and when I first caught sight of him trudging across 14th Street, he had his hood up to conceal his identity from any would-be harassers.
It had been six days since Phillips, 64, stood nose-to-nose with Nicholas Sandmann, a student at Covington Catholic high school on the steps outside the Lincoln Memorial. The stare-down became a national controversy when videos circulated showing Phillips singing and beating a drum, eyes locked with Sandmann. The teenager wore the unmistakable Maga headgear of the Trump campaign and a grin. In some clips, some of his classmates could be seen performing the tomahawk-chop gesture popularized by sports teams with Native American mascots like the Atlanta Braves.
“Way-ya
way-hi-ya-ho way-oh
