Walking Soft,
You've got me on why eastern Indians would sundance. I think there are some eastern people who support it in terms of taking food but don't necessarily participate. Then there are some young people who don't know better.
Saddens me, too. A really, really smart young Dakota woman came to undergrad at my uni, and she was very emotionally distraught about this sundance and the other stupid crap that goes on here under the name of "Sioux." She ended up dropping out. I'm hoping she'll start elsewhere, but I hate seeing a bright young person drop out in part because of having to deal with the constant appropriation of her culture.