Most Americans are taught the United States represents freedom, democracy and opportunity. From a Native American point of view, what does it represent?

The massacre of Native peoples by the American and Canadian government was nothing short of genocide. . Black Elk does not believe he is simply preserving a costume. For him, culture goes way below the skin, into the inward parts of the human soul. His journey is a martyrdom at the hands of the US government through which Black Elk is made to suffer and witness the horrible truth that he gradually begins to admit—that Native culture is being systematically eliminated by the government through harassment and relocation. The white soldiers have no idea that these people's culture ties them to their land in a deeply spiritual way that cannot be easily removed.