Nathan Phillips (born February 22, 1954), also known as Sky Man, is an

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

Native American political activist known for his role in the 2019 Lincoln Memorial confrontation in Washington, D.C.

Early life

Phillips was born in

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

, Nebraska, where he spent his first five years in a traditional Omaha Nation tribal home. From about the age of five, when he was separated from his mother, he was raised in a

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

foster family. He went to

Lincoln Southeast High School Lincoln Southeast High School is a public high school located in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Lincoln Public Schools district. Lincoln Southeast High School has the highest accreditation from the Nebraska Department ...

. He later moved to Washington, D.C. Phillips entered the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves on May 20, 1972. During his time in the military, he was trained as an

anti-tank Anti-tank warfare refers to the military strategies, tactics, and weapon systems designed to counter and destroy enemy armored vehicles, particularly tanks. It originated during World War I following the first deployment of tanks in 1916, and ...

missileman and then served on active duty as a refrigerator technician in Nebraska and California; he was shown as absent without leave three times. He was not deployed to Vietnam or anywhere overseas. On May 5, 1976, Phillips was discharged as an E-1

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

following disciplinary issues.

Activism

By 1999, Phillips was working to create a foster care system run by American Indians for Native children to help them gain an appreciation for their heritage: "I don't want our children to think that prison is the only place for them to go." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' identified Phillips as a former director of the Native Youth Alliance, a group aiming to uphold traditional culture and spiritual ways for future Native Americans, and reported that he leads an annual ceremony honoring Native American war veterans in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

. ''

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'' called him "a well-known Native American activist who was among those leading the Standing Rock protests in 2016 and 2017 against the construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota". Phillips was among the last of the protesters when law enforcement evicted the camps and effectively ended the protests, which he characterized as "a prayer ..., a commitment to stand for our youth, for our children, for nature and for myself, standing for my nation." In 2015, Phillips alleged a group of students from

Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, EMich, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern) is a public university, public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1849 as the Michigan State Normal School, it was the fourth normal ...

harassed him.According to an April 22, 2015, Fox local news report by Dave Spencer, Phillips filed a report of racial harassment with Eastern Michigan University campus police against 30 to 40 students who "referred to themselves as the Hurons, the former mascot at EMU", while dressed as Native Americans for an American Indian theme party. He was "bombarded with racial slurs", and one of the students threw a beer can at him. A January 2019 article in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' described Phillips as "a veteran in the indigenous rights movement". A January 2019 article in ''

Indian Country Today ''ICT'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a nonprofit, multimedia news platform that covers the Indigenous world, with a particular focus on American Indian, Alaska Native and First Nations communities across North America. Fo ...

'' described Phillips as a "keeper of a sacred pipe".

''Between Earth and Sky''

Phillips is the subject of the award-winning 2013 documentary film ''Between Earth and Sky'' in which he and his wife, Shoshana, travel back to his Omaha reservation after Shoshana was diagnosed with bone-marrow cancer. Together they seek traditional healing for her. She died of the disease in 2014.

"Make It Bun Dem" video

In 2012, Phillips and his son appeared in the music video for " Make It Bun Dem", a song by

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ, record producer, musician, singer. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he began his career in 2004 as the lead vocalist of the ...

and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley. In a February 20, 2017, interview that took place during the

Dakota Access Pipeline protests The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests or the Standing Rock Protests, also known by the hashtag #NODAPL, NoDAPL, were a series of grassroots Native Americans in the United States, Native American protests against the construction of the Dakota Ac ...

(DAPL), Phillips explained he had answered the casting call because he wanted to help his children cope with his wife's cancer.

Lincoln Memorial confrontation

On January 18, 2019, snippets of videos recorded at the

Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a List of national memorials of the United States, U.S. national memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln, the List of presidents of the United States, 16th president of the United States, located on the western end of the Nati ...

in Washington, D.C., appeared to show Phillips being harassed by a group of 50 to 60 high school boys who had attended the coinciding annual

March for Life March for Life may refer to: * March for Life (Washington, D.C.), an annual anti-abortion gathering held in Washington, D.C. * March for Life (Paris), an annual demonstration held in Paris protesting abortion * March for Life (Prague), an annual ...

; they were widely shared through social media. Print media described Phillips as surrounded by the students, one of whom, Nicholas Sandmann, exhibited a "relentless smirk".Print media weeks later walked back much of its reporting; see for example thi
Editor's Note
Phillips had walked towards and into a group of adolescent boys from

Covington Catholic High School Covington Catholic High School (abbreviated CCH or CovCath) is a private, Roman Catholic, high school for boys in Park Hills, Kentucky, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Bishop Francis William Howard and Brother George Sauer, and is part ...

(CovCath), who had traveled from

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

on a school trip to attend the

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its Abortion by country, legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in r ...

.The ''March For Life'' had a permit for a

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

demonstrations on the

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institu ...

on that day. According to ''The Cut'', CovCath sends an annual delegation of its students to attend the anti-abortion March For Life in Washington. He began to sing the AIM Song, a Native American intertribal song from the

Red Power movement The Red Power movement was a social movement which was led by Native American youth who demanded self-determination for Native Americans in the United States. Organizations that were part of the Red Power Movement include the American Indian ...

. Videos showed Sandmann, later identified as a junior at CovCath, and Phillips facing each other inches apart while Phillips chanted and beat his drum and some of the students in the background allegedly did "tomahawk chops" and danced. Several students wore red "

Make America Great Again "Make America Great Again" (MAGA, ) is an American political slogan most recently popularized by Donald Trump during his successful presidential campaigns in 2016 and in 2024. "MAGA" is also used to refer to Trump's ideology, political bas ...

" caps. Shortly after the video went viral, CovCath's communications director released a statement regretting that the incident took place. On January 19, 2019, multiple students who were present stated that coverage of the incident had been skewed. Sandmann released a statement saying that the students had been confronted by four members of the

Black Hebrew Israelites Black Hebrew Israelites (also called Hebrew Israelites, Black Hebrews, Black Israelites, and African Hebrew Israelites) are a new religious movement claiming that African Americans are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Some sub-groups ...

and that Phillips had tried to provoke the students; he denied that they had chanted "build the wall" or used any racist language or gestures. Interviewed after the event, Phillips claimed he heard students chanting, "Build that wall! Build that wall!" and making racist comments. He stated, "This is indigenous land..., we're not supposed to have walls here. We never did for millenniums before anybody else came here". He also described the event as "that moment I ... put myself between beast and prey. These young men were beastly and these old black individuals was their prey."

Robby Soave Robert Emil Soave Jr. (, ; born August 8, 1988) is an American libertarian journalist. He is a senior editor for ''Reason'' and co-host of '' The Hill''s web news commentary series program '' Rising''. Early life and education Soave was born ...

, writing for ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

'' magazine, and

Caitlin Flanagan Caitlin Flanagan (born November 14, 1961) is an American writer and social critic. A contributor to ''The Atlantic'' since February 2001, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2019. Her 2004 piece for ''The New Yorker'' was ...

, writing in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'', said that in their opinion, videos of the event either contradicted or failed to confirm parts of Phillips' version of events and the video evidence—while it did not completely exonerate the boys' behavior—was broadly consistent with their story. Flanagan also said that video footage showed members of the Black Hebrew Israelites shouting racial insults and slurs at a group of Native Americans and later at the students. Asked why he had approached the group of students, Phillips alleged he was trying to defuse a confrontation between the group of students and a small group of Black Hebrew Israelites who were shouting insults and profanities at the students. In subsequent interviews, Phillips and his associates stated they interpreted the chants that the students directed toward their nearby

Indigenous Peoples March The Indigenous Peoples March was a demonstration and march on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on January 18, 2019. The event included speeches, prayers, songs, and dance. Its goal was to draw attention to global injustices against indigeno ...

as racist.

Notes

References

External links

*
Did Nathan Phillips Falsely Claim He Was a Vietnam Veteran?
on

Snopes ''Snopes'' (), formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source ...

Native elders recount the history of the song Nathan Phillips sang, the AIM Song
on ICT {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Nathan 20th-century Native American people 21st-century Native American people Native American activists Activists for Native American rights American Indigenous rights activists Omaha Tribe of Nebraska people People from Lincoln, Nebraska Activists from Nebraska Military personnel from Nebraska United States Marine Corps reservists 1954 births American adoptees Living people Articles containing video clips Native American people from Nebraska