Diocese investigates youths’ behavior at march

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A diocese in Kentucky is looking into videos that show youths, possibly from its allmale high school, mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial after a rally in Washington.

Laura Keener of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington said Saturday it regrets the incident and is investigating but didn’t comment further.

The Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday coincided

with the March for Life, which drew thousands of anti-abortion protesters, including a group from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills.

Videos circulating online show a youth staring at and standing extremely close to an elderly Native American man singing and playing a drum.

Other youths, some wearing Covington clothing and many wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and sweatshirts, surrounded them, laughing and jeering.

The man playing the drum was

identified by the “Indian Country Today” website as Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran who holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.

“When I was there singing, I heard them saying, ‘Build that wall, build that wall,’” Phillips said, as he wiped away tears in a video posted on Instagram. “This is indigenous lands. We’re not supposed to have walls here. We never did.”

He said he wished the group would put their energy into “making this country really great.”