I thought it was very interesting that the author distinguishes between the "romantic ideal" that people had toward the Native Americans and the "real Indian". People like Powell and Gate wanted to move away from this weak sentimentality towards Indians and instead characterize them and reform them according to what they really were. Powell believed that "seeing the Indian as he really is" was the first step in affecting his social betterment".Gates states "to bring him out of savagery into citizenship, ... we need to awaken in him his wants". Realist reforms wanted to grant Indian property rights that aided the white, educated society while also showing the Indians understand that there was property that they didn't have.
This completely contrasted people's sensational, romantic view of the Indians that revolved around people's misunderstanding of practices like the Ghost dance. One book went so far to interpret the dance by saying "The Indians are practically doomed as a race, and none realize it better than themselves".
These two views, although very different, shows how much the overall views of society can affect ethnography. In present day, we tend to think of our old mentalities towards Indians outdated and incorrect, but at that time, both of these views were seen as correct, and may have accelerated the human rights violations that occurred at that time. Will many of our beliefs and practices be judged in the future?
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