The Ghost Dance As Modern Religion, By Louis S. Warren's Views Of The Native American Society

Furthermore, the land given from the Dawes Act to the Native Americans still continued to be watched over by the army, where Native American’s culture was not to be expressed. According to, “Wage Work in the Sacred Circle: The Ghost Dance as Modern Religion” by Louis S. Warren, the article examines Native American’s use of the ghost dance and how the American viewed these behaviors. Warren writes, “the army had been in charges with suppressing the religion among the [Native tribes].” The only religion acceptable was Christianity, nothing more, nothing less. America refused to understand the native culture, but decided that eliminating the culture is considered an easier route. It’s easier to eliminate than to adopt an idea. The best way America

Also, Warren writes, “What did the new religion portend? Was it a secret plan to unite the tribes against their white oppressors?” The statement above says it all; the white’s were the oppressors of the natives, the white’s automatically believed that the natives are going to rebel, and the “new religion” (to the whites of course) is not acceptable. Whites knew they were controlling and dictate on what the Native Americans could do, but did not see that this oppression was wrong. Having lost everything, Native Americans were not going to let Americans prevent their ability to practice the ghost dance ritual. In the article, “Ghost Dances and Identity” by Gregory E. Smoak, Smoak states “the [ghost] dance for the Lakotas had become a religion of resistance.” Native Americans had nothing to lose, everything was already taken away from them. Their culture and religion was something that kept their identity intact. The Americans can do as they pleased, but when it comes to destroying a piece of what makes a person a different race, than of course there is going to be a resistance. Culture is what makes us all different from one another, but it is also what makes us who we

In the article, “Excluding Indians Not Taxed” by Brad Tennant, who states that “Assimilation generally meant that Native Americans should adopt Euro-American clothing, language, religion, and an agricultural lifestyle before qualifying for citizenship…[but] at most expect second-class citizenship status when it came to exercising their constitutional rights and protections.” All of the effort to erase the exist of Native culture was for nothing, if the point of the assimilation was to accept Natives as citizens. The Native Americans were never truly treated equally with everyone who were also a citizen. As the article mentions that Native would only have “second-class citizenship,” and that just shows how the government really didn’t want the Native’s to be citizens. America is a place where citizenship is given if one were to follow the country’s rules and guidelines, and Native Americans did exactly that by having to let go their culture and adopt a new one. Tennant states, “U.S government often used citizenship as a means of assimilating tribal Indians into the dominant white society.” Native Americans have no power over Americans, if the article states that whites are already dominant. What was the point for U.S to issue this assimilation if there was no guarantee of citizenship; the assimilation served no purpose, if