On the Defensive.

Despite the differences between the religious worlds of Euro- and Native Americans, there was no avoiding interaction. By the early nineteenth century the dynamic of religious contact was both aggressive and defensive, for the encroachment of white civilization coincided with a receding native confidence in the incontestible power of indigenous belief systems. Dispossession and removal had gradually undercut the ability of many native groups to assimilate change; involvement in trade and the consumption of alcohol, once seen as means to power, became corrosive cultural forces. Defeat in battle also opened the door to religious reexamination, leading to doubt in the efficacy of the old rituals, or to reproach for their neglect. Finally, disease often furnished the most devastating attack on Indian equilibrium. The advance guard of white settlement was often microbial, and waves of epidemics continued to ravage...