Native American elder tells ‘Today’ he forgives Covington Catholic students

A day after Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann said he wishes he would have walked away from a Native American elder in Washington, D.C., the man said he forgives the teen.

Nathan Phillips, who was at the center of a viral encounter with Sandmann last week in D.C., spoke with Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s ‘Today’ show Thursday and said he woke up Wednesday with a forgiving heart. While singing and banging a drum, Phillips was moving slowly through the Covington Catholic students when he and Sandmann, ended up standing face to face for an extended period. Each has blamed the other for the confrontation.

“Even though I’m angry, I still have that forgiveness in my heart for those students,” he said. “And that forgiveness even goes to those chaperones and teachers who should have said to those students, ‘This isn’t the place.’”

Phillips’ appearance on ‘Today’ came after Sandmann was on the program. Sandmann also released a statement Sunday.

That statement was one Phillips thought was coached, lacking in sincerity and responsibility, he said Thursday.

“What it says is he has a PR firm so those aren’t even his words,” Phillips said.

Phillips said he was able to forgive Sandmann after he prayed more this week.

Covington Catholic students were in D.C. for the March for Life anti-abortion rally. Phillips had attended the Indigenous Peoples March, also in D.C.

Phillips said he was trying to walk away and take his own group to a different place when he was blocked by Sandmann, who is a junior at the school. “Oh, I was blocked,” Phillips told Guthrie.

“I was trying to walk away. ... We were surrounded. We couldn’t go left, we couldn’t go right, back … I was still in prayer, still singing, and then I was looking past the crowd,” Phillips said. “I took that first step and that crowd backed up. I took that second step and the crowd starting breaking apart. I took a third step and I saw a clear space and I said, ‘That’s the space.’ We started going that way and somewhere, from a clear space, a person was there.”

On Wednesday, Sandmann said he wasn’t sure what Phillips was trying to accomplish when he walked toward the students. .

“I’m not sure where he wanted to go. And if he wanted to walk past me, I would’ve let him go,” Sandmann said.

Like Sandmann, Phillips said he has also received death threats.

While the two shared their accounts Wednesday and Thursday of what occurred Jan. 18 in D.C., Lexington Bishop John Stowe said he was ashamed that actions of the Covington Catholic students “have become a contradiction of the very reverence for human life that the march is supposed to manifest.”

Stowe, who is the leader of the Catholic Church in the 50 counties of Central and Eastern Kentucky, put his thoughts in an op-ed. He noted the ‘Make America Great Again’ hats and clothing the students were wearing.

“It astonishes me that any students participating in a pro-life activity on behalf of their school and their Catholic faith could be wearing apparel sporting the slogans of a president who denigrates the lives of immigrants, refugees and people from countries that he describes with indecent words and haphazardly endangers with life-threatening policies.”

In Northern Kentucky, the church and school are still dealing with the aftermath from Friday’s event.

The high school was back in session Wednesday after canceling Tuesday for security reasons. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported there were no signs of protests or rallies outside the school amid a heavy police presence.

Hundreds of threats have been made against Covington Catholic, Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders told WLWT. He said it will likely take a lot of time to identify, find and prosecute the people behind the alleged threats.

“This isn’t something that’s going to be over in the next couple days,” Sanders said.

This story was originally published January 24, 2019 at 8:48 AM.