What actions were taken against the Lakota Indians that were shocking?

When the white man ventures on to Indian land, his first order of business is to eradicate the Indian lifestyle. Mary notes that the popular image of Indians teaching white explorers to plant corn and a mixed congregation sharing Thanksgiving dinner together is false. Most white explorers did not take the time to get to know the Indians or the wisdom of their ways. Instead the immediate concern was to corral the Indians and force them to live according to white ways. As Mary says, "Christianizing us was one way of making us white, that is, of making us forget that we were Indians." (Chapter 7, pg. 92)

The white man fears the Indian ways. Because the Indians worship the earth, sun, moon and Mother Nature through strange rituals that include piercing one's flesh, eating dog, and binding people in cloth, the white man assumes that these practices are evil. The fear of the unknown causes the white man to refuse to listen instead seeking to subdue an imagined enemy. The white man's concern can be rationalized by the knowledge that some Indian tribes were known to act violently even against other tribes. However, violent Indian behavior can be explained by the fact that the Indian's way of living, their homeland, and their lives were often threatened without provocation. Mary says that anyone backed into a corner will fight and that Indians are always in a corner.

The influx of white men brings a whole new culture to Indians. Most of the ideas brought by the white men prove detrimental to the Indians, and, in truth, are not very healthy for any men. Whiskey turns men who were once brave warriors into drunken wife beaters. The loss of land and animals causes many to starve and for sacred rituals to go unpracticed. Ancient knowledge passed down through generations is lost as the old die and the young do not understand the old ways. The family unit is torn apart in an attempt to create an individualistic society when previously, a large extended family saw to the care of the very young, the very old, and all those in between. People are on edge because they do not know where they belong. New luxuries only breed envy and more fear of others.

Lack of understanding and patience couple with fear to produce a volatile environment where peaceful people are made violent. The white men destroy old ways that could have proved beneficial to themselves and upset an entire nation causing more stress for the white people. The problem is age old and has no end. Mary's story shows the effects of an imposed culture on the old ways and the damage it does to both parties involved.