‘It was ugly ... It was hatred. It was scary’

Native American advocate in video that sparked outrage gives new details

For years, Native American advocate Nathan Phillips of metro Detroit has been fighting for the rights of indigenous people.

On Friday, his battle gained national attention as social media videos captured his standoff with a group of taunting Catholic school students in the nation’s capital. The video of Phillips, peacefully drumming and singing while surrounded by a hostile crowd illustrates the nation’s political and racial tensions.

Speaking to the Free Press by phone, Phillips, 64, of Ypsilanti explained what happened after 5 p.m. Friday during the Indigenous Peoples’ March he was attending and spoke of his history working for the cause of Native American people.

He gave new details about an inci- dent that sparked outrage and criticism from a range of groups.

Prior to what is seen on the now-viral video, Phillips said he was in Washington attending a Native American rally. Near the end of rally, he said he tried to keep the peace between a group of mostly white students attending a March for Life event, and a group of about four people with a religious group known as the Black Hebrew Israelites.

Phillips, a former Marine, said the incident started as a group of Catholic students from Kentucky were observing the Black Israelites talk, and started to get upset at their speeches. The Catholic group then got bigger and bigger, with more than 100 assembled at one point.

“They witnessed these individuals on their soapbox saying what they had to say,” Phillips said. “They didn’t agree with it and got offended.”

Then, things got heated.

“They were in the process of attacking these four black individuals,” Phillip said. “I was there and I was witnessing all of this. ... As this kept on going on and escalating, it just got to a point where you do something or you walk away, you know? You see something that is wrong and you’re faced with that choice of right or wrong.”

Phillips said that some of the members of the Black Hebrew group were also acting up, “saying some harsh things” and that one member spit in the direction of the Catholic students. “So I put myself in between that, between a rock and hard place,” he said.

But then, the crowd of mostly male students turned their anger toward Phillips.

“There was that moment when I realized I’ve put myself between beast and prey,” Phillips said. “These young men were beastly and these old black individuals was their prey, and I stood in be- tween them and so they needed their pounds of flesh and they were looking at me for that.”

The crowd of students, some of whom wore MAGA caps, mocked Native Americans while chanting “Build the Wall” and using derogatory language. The students had a “mob mentality” that “was scary. ... It was ugly, what these kids were involved in. It was racism. It was hatred. It was scary.”

Speaking from his niece’s home, Phillips said: “I’m a Marine Corps veteran, and I know what that mob mentality can be like. That’s where it was at. It got to a point where they just needed something for them to ... just tear them apart. I mean, it was that ugly.”

Phillips said he recalled “the looks in these young men’s faces ... I mean, if you go back and look at the lynchings that was done (in America) ... and you’d see the faces on the people. ... The glee and the hatred in their faces, that’s what these faces looked like.”

Phillips said the clash in Washington means “that we’ve got a lot of work to do” in educating people about Native Americans and racism.

“There was that moment when I realized I’ve put myself between beast and prey.”

Nathan Phillips, Native American advocate