The Native American man who said he was left 'shaken and overwhelmed' by Kentucky Catholic high school students on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial turned out again the next day to lead 60 protesters up the steps of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, allegedly to disrupt a mass.

Nathan Phillips, 63, joined dozens of supporters in Washington DC on Saturday night outside the shrine while hundreds were inside worshiping.

The group wanted to 'hold the Catholic church accountable' for the actions of students from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Kentucky, who were filmed the day before taunting Phillips as he beat his drum.

Videos show them gathering outside the church and waiting for Phillips to arrive before walking en masse up the steps, singing and playing their drums.

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Nathan Phillips is seen protesting outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on January 19, a day after his viral clash with Kentucky Catholic high school students

According to security guards who work for the Basilica and spoke anonymously to the Catholic News Agency, the group tried to enter the building while the 5.15pm mass was going on and had to be stopped.

'It was really upsetting. There were about twenty people trying to get in, we had to lock the doors and everything.

'We had hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the country come here to celebrate life, to celebrate each other together. That a protest tried to come inside during Mass was really the worst.

'I'm just really grateful that nothing too bad happened, they were really angry,' the guard said.

DailyMail.com asked members of the Native American protest if they tried to enter the church as claimed but they insisted they did not.

Before Phillips arrived, they had been told by security guards to leave the church as congregants were arriving for the mass.

The group went across the street and waited until Phillips arrived.

Then, they marched back towards it, up the steps and carried on singing.

Michelle Brass, one of the people there, told DailyMail.com that it was unclear whether there was an intention to go inside the church or not.

'There was no discussion of trying to enter the church. I wasn't sure how I felt about walking back up towards it because we had already been asked to leave but it felt really peaceful.

'We walked up the steps and then we stopped. There were guards standing there,' she said.

Brass was not close enough to know if the guards stopped the group or if they stopped on their own accord but, she said, the protesters were singing peaceful prayer songs and were not in any way menacing or behaving aggressively.

Shortly after, two police cars arrived. The officers got out and stood in between the protesters and the church doors.

Brass said that the group were not being aggressive, violent or threatening in their protest.

I was just to stand up and support Nathan Phillips.

Philips joined a group of around 60 people who were gathered at the foot of the Basilica on Saturday night in a show of support for him. Security guards in the church say they tried to enter while mass was being conducted but were stopped

'I've seen the extended video and the students were still displaying gestures [that were offensive].

'They were extremely peaceful,' she said of Saturday's protest, adding: 'Never was there an attempt to rush the church.'

Videos of the group gathering outside before Phillips' arrival lay bare their goal.

In one that was uploaded to Facebook, a man told the group after finishing a song: 'This land here was stolen... by one of the oldest institutions - the Catholic Church.

'Today, we saw that historic colonial violence play out by the treatment of our elder, Nathan Phillips, who was treated by members of the Catholic community after the Indigenous People's March, when he was surrounded, harassed, mistreated by members of this faith.

'We are calling for accountability from the Catholic church... we're calling for accountability from the adults who taught these children to act this way.

'We're just waiting on Uncle Nathan Phillips to arrive and tell us a bit about his experience and how we can address this issue,' the man said.

Phillips arrived shortly afterwards and spoke to the crowd but no videos of his remarks have surfaced.

Footage taken afterwards shows him walking with the group up the steps to the Basilica.

No footage or photographs of the group trying to enter the church and being stopped have emerged so it remains unclear if they in fact tried to get in, as the security guards claim, or if the church doors were locked before they could try.

Since his confrontation with students at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday, the day before the basilica protest, Phillips has said he was left 'shaken', 'scared' and 'overwhelmed'

The 64-year-old received an outpouring of support and sympathy after this video of him went viral. It showed him beating his drum while Nick Sandmann (left) stared at him and smiled and other kids mocked him in the background

Nick Sandmann, the MAGA hat-wearing Catholic high school student who stared down a Native American war veteran during a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday, has said he does not believe he was disrespectful but that he wishes he would have walked away

Phillips has given multiple interviews since the Friday clash with the Covington students.

He has said in them that he felt scared, threatened and unsure of what to do in the moment so he played his drum, sang in prayer and tried to connect with the 16-year-old Nick Sandmann.

He also said he heard them chant 'build the wall!' but that was not captured in either of the videos that have emerged of the incident.

Before he approached the students, they were being insulted and harassed by a group of Hebrew Israelites who labeled them 'child molesting f****ts' among other things.

On Wednesday morning, Sandmann gave an interview to NBC in which he said he respected the older man and did not believe he was being offensive when he stood in front of him and smiled in his face.

Covington reopened on Wednesday after staying closed the previous day amid security fears.