In Charles Eastman’s novel From Deep Woods to Civilization, Eastman uses the final chapter to describe his experiences during the colonization of America by white culture from the native American perspective while simultaneously illuminating the inaccurate interpretations of native American culture the Americans had. Eastman uses the final chapter to further explain how the Americans cultural interpretation of native American life was inaccurate, and how it changed over the course of Eastman’s life. This is first seen when he accepted a job assigning white names to native Americans. Before Eastman, the native American saw the act of reassigning names as “another cunning scheme by the white man to defraud them of the little land still left …show more content…
103). He did not desire to be an advocate for their culture, but through his writings and his public speaking events, he became a spokesperson for the post-assimilation actions towards the native Americans and how they could have improved. In addition, Eastman does not openly criticize the white culture, but he also doesn’t praise it. For example, he claims that his “chief object has been, not to entertain, but to present the American Indian in his true character before Americans.” He has accepted both cultures, and attempted to mediate between the two. Furthermore, Eastman lived in colonized America and the corresponding culture for the majority of his life, but he also as an understanding and respect for the Sioux culture. Many people still imagine that the Sioux culture remained uncivilized after the assimilation, but this was untrue. Eastman used his writing and his public speaking to convey the truth about the Sioux. This is most accurately seen when Eastman states that “Some persons imagine that we are still wild savages, living on the hunt of on rations; but as a matter of fact, we Sioux are now fully entrenched, for all practical purposes, in the warfare of civilization,” and this