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 civil rights still had anti-peyote laws, only five did not provide exemptions for Indians to use peyote ritually." These were amended under the pressure from the Native American Church member if the members showed proof that they were at least 25 percent Native American. The states laws were generally similar to those of South Dakota, which says that "when used as a sacrament in services of the Native American Church in a natural state which is unaltered except for drying or curing or slicing", peyote use is permitted. In 1978 the American Indian Religious Freedom Act there was mention of protection for