The Native American elder at the center of the controversial encounter with a group of Kentucky Catholic school students in Washington, D.C. has contradicted and criticized the statement issued by the most prominent teenager featured in the video that generated the media storm.
“Unfortunately, much of the students’ behavior was understood by me and those with me as a mockery of our cultures,” Omaha Nation leader Nathan Phillips said in a statement Tuesday. “I have read the statement from Nick Sandmann, the student who stared at me for a long time. He did not apologize, and I believe there are intentional falsehoods in his testimony. But I have faith that human beings can use a moment like this to find a way to gain understanding from one another.”
