Tribal Rights Attorney Disputes Teens Account: ‘I Witnessed Something That Was Very Aggressive’
Despite more information coming out showing there was more to the story between Nathan Phillips and Nick Sandmann, trial rights attorney Tara Houska told MSNBC the student’s actions showed they “have no idea” who Native Americans are as a people and they were being disrespectful.
“Clearly those students have no idea who Native American people are, to surround an indigenous elder and chant ‘Build the wall’ kind of exposes that it really has nothing to do with border security, it seems like an issue with race and white supremacy,” Houska said.
After filming this, I asked a man to walk me past, saw an elder w/Natives around him. I didn’t realize the #MAGA Catholic kids would block him chanting “build that wall”. It isn’t about border security, it’s about white supremacy. Prayers for #NathanPhillips & teens taught hate. pic.twitter.com/1KZJ72CDDd
— tara houska (@zhaabowekwe) January 20, 2019
Houska also dismissed the notion the videos that showed more context to the incident changed the real story.
“I was there and I witnessed something that was very aggressive and something that was very frightening,” she continued. “And to see that level antagonism and hate, you can’t fake that.”
CNN’s Sara Sidner explained how the students were at first being heckled by men belonging to the Black Israelites so the students began to chant to drown out the shouts. At one point, Phillips walked into the crowd where he encountered Sandmann and the interaction between the two was filmed.
Watch above, via MSNBC
