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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho is Nathan Phillips? Years ago, Omaha Tribe member said spiritual journey was grounded in .......
By Matt Kelley / World-Herald staff writer Jan 21, 2019 Updated 7 hrs ago 1
The following article, written by Matt Kelley, originally ran in the Omaha World-Herald on Nov. 26, 2000.
Washington, D.C. For 26 days now, Nebraska native Nathan Phillips has conducted a personal, somewhat eccentric vigil on Washington's National Mall.
Joined by his companion, Shoshana Konstant, and their two small children, Phillips plans to spend all of November praying for his fellow American Indians from one of three tepee lodges he's set up on an expanse of grass between the Washington Monument and the White House.
A member of Nebraska's Omaha Tribe, Phillips says he doesn't consider himself a protester but rather a man answering a call to honor his people and his Creator.
"I would call myself a spiritual runner, " he said.
Born and raised in Lincoln, Phillips conducted his first monthlong prayer session last year in conjunction with Native American Heritage Month. Joined by Konstant and their kids 3-year-old Zakiah and 14-month-old Alethea Phillips spends his time praying and tending to a fire inside a canvas lodge that for weeks has served as the family's primary home.
FULL story: https://www.omaha.com/news/nation/who-is-nathan-phillips-years-ago-omaha-tribe-member-said/article_6cc049c4-d6d8-5e3c-8ee6-939a203682af.html
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,110 posts)50 Shades Of Blue
(9,776 posts)stonecutter357
(12,682 posts)mia
(8,356 posts)By Rowan Philp November 21, 2000
Uh-oh. Indians on the Mall for Thanksgiving.
Yep: the other guys from that 1621 banquet, front and center in the nation's capital, and all the inconvenient truths they represent.
There they are, in three tepees by the Washington Monument. A family. Just a single Omaha family and some friends.
You just know they're not commemorating that nice first Thanksgiving meal, when the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians of Patuxet sat down together. No, they'll be commemorating that pesky second one--the one where the native tribe wasn't invited. Or maybe that really unfortunate 50th one, where there weren't any Wampanoag left to invite....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2000/11/21/a-mourning-wake-up-call/c9fd1ab8-dfdc-42fd-a5b7-c9e8d3b3512e/?utm_term=.7d7562cac698
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)Including other voices from the Omaha nation.
I have personal connections with Phillips - I find it helpful to listen to his description of the events of this weekend in the context of what I know of the rest of his life including that he is an individual who has struggled mightily because of injustices at the hands of whites - including being taken from his home for reasons that would not justify the removal of white children from theirs, and being placed in highly inappropriate homes which used his heritage to further isolate him - and also simply from being separated from his cultural and religious heritage during his formative years.
As an unnamed Omaha leader said in this article, "He's just trying to find his way, . . . Let him find it." This bit of background provides helpful context.