He was there to raise awareness about Native Americans and other native groups at the Indigenous Peoples March.
They intersected Friday in an unsettling encounter outside the Lincoln Memorial — a throng of cheering and jeering high school boys, predominantly white and wearing “Make America Great Again” gear, surrounding a Native American elder.
In video footage that was shared widely on social media, one boy, wearing the red hat that has become a signature of President Donald Trump, stood directly in front of the elder, who stared impassively ahead while playing a ceremonial drum.
The encounter became the latest touchpoint for racial tensions in America, particularly under Trump, who has painted immigrants in broad strokes as rapists and drug dealers and recently mocked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., with a reference to Wounded Knee and Little Bighorn, sacred ground for Native Americans whose ancestors fought and died there.
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Across the country, Trump’s name — and his campaign for a wall on the border with Mexico — have been used to goad minorities, including by high school students at sporting events.
The episode Friday between the group of boys from a Catholic high school and a Native American elder who was identified as a Vietnam veteran drew widespread condemnation from Native Americans, Catholics and politicians alike.
“This veteran put his life on the line for our country,” Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., who recently became one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress, said on Twitter. “The students’ display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking.”
Sisters of Mercy, a group of Roman Catholic women who take vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and service, condemned the behavior in the videos as disturbing and bigoted. “Racism and intolerance in all forms go directly against Catholic social teaching,” the Sisters of Mercy said.
Some boys in the group wore clothing associated with Covington Catholic High School, an all-male college preparatory school in Park Hills, Kentucky, near Cincinnati. The school had advertised that students would attend this year’s March for Life Rally, which took place in Washington on Friday. In a letter to parents, the trip was described as an opportunity for students to live out their faith and demonstrate in support of all life “born and unborn.”
Leaders at the school did not respond to requests for comment Saturday. Its website and Facebook page were taken down Saturday afternoon.
Laura Keener, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Covington, said Saturday that it had just learned about the episode, which she said she believed involved students from Covington, and could not comment further. “We regret that it happened and we’re going to look into it,” she said.
In a statement Saturday, the Indigenous Peoples Movement identified the man in the videos as Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder, a veteran of the Vietnam War and the former director of the Native Youth Alliance, a group that works to ensure that traditional culture and spiritual ways are upheld for future generations. Phillips also holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans in Arlington National Cemetery, the group said.
Phillips could not be reached for comment Saturday. In a video interview posted to Twitter, he stood outside the Lincoln Memorial and wiped his eyes. “I heard them say ‘Build that wall! Build that wall!'” he said. “This is indigenous land. We’re not supposed to have walls here.”
Darren Thompson, an organizer for the Indigenous Peoples March, said the all-day event Friday, which started with a prayer outside the Bureau of Indian Affairs and ended with a rally outside the Lincoln Memorial, was meant to raise awareness about Native Americans and other indigenous groups around the world. A few thousand people attended the march to show that “we are still here and we still have issues we are raising and are concerned about,” he said.
The exchange between the students and Phillips “clearly demonstrates the validity of our concerns,” Thompson said, adding that “traditional knowledge is being ignored by those who should listen most closely.”
But in its statement, the Indigenous Peoples Movement also said there was more to the rally at steps of the Lincoln Memorial — and the encounter with the high school students — than was shown in the videos.
“What is not being shown on the video is that the same youth and a few others became emotional because of the power, resilience and love we inherently carry in our DNA,” another organizer, Nathalie Farfan, said. “Our day on those steps ended with a round dance, while we chanted, ‘We are still here.'”
Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s Democratic secretary of state who graduated from a Catholic high school, said in statements on social media that she was alarmed to see the students from her state taunting and harassing Phillips.
“In spite of these horrific scenes, I refuse to shame and solely blame these children for this type of behavior,” she said. “Instead, I turn to the adults.”
She called on Covington Catholic to denounce the behavior. “Kentucky,” she said, “we are better than this.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.