Native American civil rights criticize the idea of "American progress" and to express pride and faith in the identities of their own cultures. Charles Eastman, a Mdewakanton and Wahpeton Sioux and physician, published books and articles in English for American people to show that it is not savage that Native people celebrate what Mourning Dove called the "ancient way". In 1902, Gertrude Bonnin told the "Atlantic Monthly" that the traditions of her tribe, the Yankton Dakota Sioux, were not only equal to European Americans, but that their values were superior. In 1903, Charles Eastman, a Santee Dakotan and Native representative, was requested by Theodore
Spirit Lake Tribe treaty with the United States that established a reservation for Dakotas who had not been forcibly relocated to Crow Creek Reservation in what is now called South Dakota. The name "Devils Lake" is a calque of the Dakota phrase "mni wak’áŋ" (literally: spirit water), which is also reflected in the names of the Spirit Lake Tribe and the nearby town of Minnewaukan. The Dakota called the lake "mni wak’áŋ chante", which separately translate as "mni" (water), "wak’áŋ" (literally "pure source" but often translated as "spirit" or "sacred"), and "chante" (heart). European-American settlers misconstrued this name to mean "Bad Spirit Lake",