Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee

This reenactment of the battle of Wounded Knee made me become aware of several facts behind the western movement.  First, I was surprised at some of the types of opinions and methodologies certain white figures stood behind.  I couldn't quite figure out if Senator Dawson was so much an advocate for the Indians or if he simply used them to further his political career.  The accuracy of the historical content also obscured my understanding of some of these actions.  I also found it very interesting that they gave the Indians their own land, with the basic idea of a sovereign nation being implied, but they felt the need to colonize the Indians, broken down into the tiniest details such as having a Christian name.
I also had no idea that the whites separated the area of land given to the Native Americans into agencies.  I thought that this was especially interesting if they wanted the Indians to provide for themselves that they would provide them rations and supplies for so long without even slowly decreasing the rations and showing the Indians how to cultivate whatever they could from the barren land.
Of course from me there is the everlasting "what the hell were we thinking" reaction, lead on by what we forced the Indians to adapt to and how easily we left them to try to make a life out of virtually nothing.  But after watching the events play out in the assassination of Sitting Bull followed my the massacre at Wounded Knee, this reaction was escalated two fold, and although this period spans across generations to me now, I still feel a level of responsibility for what these people had to go through.