Nathan Phillips (activist)

Nathan Phillips (born February 22, 1954), also known as Sky Man, is an Omaha Native American political activist known for his role in the 2019 Lincoln Memorial confrontation in Washington, D.C. Phillips was born in Lincoln, Nebraska,[5] where he spent his first five years in a traditional Omaha Nation tribal home.

[13] The Guardian 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".

[1][20] In 2012, Phillips and his son appeared in the music video for "Make It Bun Dem", a song by Skrillex and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley.

[21] In a February 20, 2017, interview that took place during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests (DAPL), Phillips explained he had answered the casting call because he wanted to help his children cope with his wife's cancer.

[22] On January 18, 2019, snippets of videos recorded at the Lincoln Memorial 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; they were widely shared through social media.

[28] Shortly after the video went viral, CovCath's communications director released a statement regretting that the incident took place.

[33][34] 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.

[27][28] In subsequent interviews, Phillips and his associates stated they interpreted the chants that the students directed toward their nearby Indigenous Peoples March as racist.