The interaction between Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann and Native American Nathan Phillips[1] was captured in photos and videos disseminated by major media outlets.

The incident was described by The New York Times as an "explosive convergence of race, religion and ideological beliefs"[10] and a Vox editorial called it the "nation's biggest story".

Nicholas Sandmann, the Covington student featured in most media coverage of the incident, settled lawsuits with CNN, The Washington Post, and NBCUniversal.

[25] According to a January 23 New York Times article,[9] Indigenous Peoples March participants said they had interpreted the "loud chanting" and the size of the group, as well as their MAGA apparel, as "aggressive and disruptive to their demonstration"[9] which had just concluded.

"[29] According to CNN's Sara Sidner, two minutes after one of the students took off his shirt to lead the haka, the "drum beat of Phillips and another Native American drummer [was audible] in the video".

[22] Soon, Phillips was "encircled" by about 30 students, "many of them white and wearing apparel bearing the slogan of President Trump", red baseball hats with the phrase "Make America Great Again" (MAGA).

[10][31] Phillips continued to beat his ceremonial drum and sing for nearly two minutes as a boy wearing the red MAGA hat chose not to retreat with what some interpreted as a smirk on his face.

"[24] Earlier footage[clarification needed] that was released did not include the presence of a group of five Black Hebrew Israelites on the Plaza near the Reflecting Pond, part of a One West Camp offshoot believing in the "12 tribes" doctrine.

[10][22][23] According to witnesses and video subsequently appearing on social media, the Black Hebrew Israelite men shouted racist slurs at the high school students as well as Native Americans.

[10][24][32] They called the students "a bunch of incest babies", future "school shooters", and "dirty ass little crackers", and said "you give faggots rights".

[39] The Hebrew Israelites also called a passing black man who tried to disagree with them a "coon", told indigenous activists that the word Indian means "savage", and said to a woman who had stopped to argue with them: "Where's your husband?

[42] These new sources, which included interviews with participants, revealed the chronology of events, showing how the students had become agitated by the taunts of the Hebrew Israelites before Phillips came on the scene.

[42] One of these was a one-minute clip posted by Guam resident Kaya Taitano, a student at the University of the District of Columbia, who was with the small group of other participants at the Memorial late afternoon when the incident took place.

"[43] Taitano uploaded it to Instagram at 7:33 pm,[44][45] and her video was later reposted that day to Twitter via user "2020fight" under the title "This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March"; it received over 2.5 million views by January 21.

[47][48][49][50] The first social media video clips were short and focused on this moment, leading to initial harsh criticism of the high school students, who some described as mocking and harassing the elder.

Some people affiliated with the March described the boys as appearing threatening due to their numbers, actions, and the "Make America Great Again" caps and clothing that some wore.

[8] One of the featured speakers at the Indigenous Peoples March, Ruth Buffalo, a North Dakota Representative and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation,[51][52][53] said the students' disrespect of what was meant to have been a "celebration of all cultures" saddened her.

"[54] House Representative Deb Haaland wrote, "The students' display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration.

[55] Over the next several days statements from a spokesperson for the March, an attorney for the Lakota People's Law Project, from Nicholas Sandmann, and other officials, offered different perspectives on the incident.

"[57] However, in a following letter dated January 25, 2019, the bishop of the Covington Diocese apologized to Sandmann, saying they "should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely".

"[2] As the backlash intensified, the parents of Covington High School junior Nicholas Sandmann, the one CNN described as "smiling young man in a red Make America Great Again hat," retained the services of Louisville-based RunSwitch Public Relations, a company that specializes in crisis management.

[67] The article drew attention to Donald Trump's joking about the Wounded Knee Massacre to mock the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren.

[68][69] Vulture writer Erik Abriss, who tweeted that he wanted the Covington students and their parents to die, was fired from his second job at INE Entertainment.

[70] Film producer Jack Morrissey, who had suggested the "MAGAkids go screaming, hats first, into the woodchipper," later apologized for his "fast, profoundly stupid tweet".

'"[31] On January 21, The New York Times report from Covington said that the local community had focused its energy on "absolving the students of any wrongdoing" in the incident, having begun "to see itself as facing a politically motivated siege".

[79] On January 22, shortly after tweeting it, comedian Kathy Griffin deleted a Twitter message in which she accused Covington basketball players making an OK gesture of "throwing up the new nazi sign".

Two days later, after a longer video was released, media outlets began to withdraw from their initial analysis and made edits clarifying the changes.

[96] The lawsuit against The Washington Post was initially dismissed on July 26, 2019, because the plaintiff's claims that he was falsely accused of racist conduct "is not supported by the plain language in the article", and that otherwise the published material was opinion, protected by the First Amendment.

[114][115] The court concluded that the reporting of Phillips’s statements that Sandmann “blocked” him and “wouldn’t allow [him] to retreat” were objectively unverifiable and thus unactionable opinions.

[11][12][13] Sandmann gave a short speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention during which he recounted the incident from his perspective and stated his belief that mainstream media outlets are biased.