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
Kamiakin (Native American leader) Rock Lake in Whitman County, Washington in 1864, where he lived until his death. Kamiakin was of mixed Nez Perce, Spokane and Yakama ancestry. His father Ki-yi-yah was the son of a Nez Perce father and a Spokane mother. His mother was Yakama. In 1825 Kamiakin married Sal-kow, also a Yakama, whose father "Te-i-as" and grandfather "Weowikt" were leaders in the tribe. Kamiakin later married Colestah, also a Yakama. In 1855 Isaac Stevens, the new Washington Territory governor, was anxious to extinguish claims to traditional lands by regional tribes and free up Native American land for sale to European Americans,