In the United States, freedom of religion is a constitutionally protected right provided in the First Amendment's religion clauses. In 1978 Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Prior to that Act The Department of Interior’s 1883 Code of Indian Offenses—de facto laws that applied only to American Indians—punished Indian dances and feasts by imprisonment or withholding food (treaty rations) for up to 30 days. Any medicine man convicted of encouraging others to follow traditional practices was to be confined in the agency prison for not less than 10 days or until he could provide evidence that he had abandoned his beliefs. I think this is part of the reason Saswe, a.k.a. François Deloria, a powerful Yankton medicine man and chief of the "Half-Breed band'' accepted the Christian religion. Father and son both had major roles in two religions: Rev. Philip Joseph Deloria, an Episcopal priest, a.k.a. Tipi Sapa (Black Lodge), a leader of the Yankton/Nakota band of the Sioux Nation.Tipi Sapa is featured as one of the 98 Saints of the Ages at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as the first Dakota Christian minister to his own people.
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