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
Native American recognition in the United States self-identify as Indian, merely by checking the racial category, "Native American/Alaska Native". In 1990, about 1.8 million people self-identified in the census as American Indian. About 60 percent of those, or 1.14 million people, are enrolled in federally recognized tribes. People who self-identify as Indian but are not a part of a federally recognized group often wish to join a recognized tribe. The tribal government, in the absence of some legal obligation which stipulates otherwise, has final jurisdiction over who is a member of the tribe. Holly Reckord, an anthropologist who heads the BIA Branch of Acknowledgment and Recognition, discusses