Clark sees the Lakota people as savages not only because he considers their way of living as less developed than his own, but because the racist organization of the society was a requirement for the colonialist endeavor.
Explanation:
Although assimilation was the official government policy, the natives never really got the promised chance to preserve their way of life as long as they could adapt to new demands. The real goal was to take the natives' lands, and that could only be accomplished by spreading paternalistic and racist ideas such as the belief that the natives were savages.
