Days after President Donald Trump “joked” about a historic massacre of Native Americans, a group of high schoolers disrupted the Indigenous Peoples March, held in Washington, D.C., and went viral in the process.
In one video a young boy wearing a Make America Great Again cap stands close to an Indigenous elder who is singing and drumming, a smile plastered on the high school student’s face. The camera pans to reveal numerous other young boys loudly cheering and chanting in the background over the marchers. Some of the MAGA gang are wearing clothing bearing insignia from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hill, Kentucky.
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The Indigenous Peoples March was held in an effort to bring awareness to “the injustices affecting Indigenous men, women, and children,” according to the Indigenous Peoples Movement. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that students from Covington had originally planned to attend the March for Life, an anti-abortion event held on the same day in D.C.
So disheartening to see how our young people think it’s okay to mock and disrespect our indigenous elders.
— Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) January 19, 2019
We need to do better. #EndHate
pic.twitter.com/4wp8hHw9q8
The harassment went viral, with one video garnering more than four million views. The videos have also prompted an intense backlash against the school, who have made all their social media accounts private. Refinery29 have reached out to Covington officials for comment.
The International Indigenous Youth Council called for the boys to immediately be investigated by the American Civil Liberties Union. “This happened YESTERDAY in our nations [sic] CAPITAL! An elder was surrounded and mocked and attacked in a very violent and unacceptable way. Your children are absorbing this behaviour. This is a HATE CRIME!”
This happened YESTERDAY in our nations CAPITAL! An elder was surrounded and mocked and attacked in a very violent and unacceptable way. Your children are absorbing this behavior. This is a HATE CRIME! These young men should be investigated by the @ACLU IMMEDIATELY! pic.twitter.com/ijlRWadIwb
— Int’l Indigenous Youth Council (@IIYCfamily) January 19, 2019