What the assimilationist Hopi gradually realized is that if they were to shed the artifacts of their culture, they would more or less be marked for subhumanity and gradual destruction, which the United States government and businesses typically do with indigenous communities and communities of color.
The assimilationists seized upon their traditions and held them up as talismans to ward off Western exploitation and aggression, or as some sort of life raft. To the imperialist, here was a culture, something of beauty and value, which produces valuable artifacts and interesting aesthetics, and which demands itself to be seen as living, through the force of its own existence. Surely something like this deserves to live on?
The assimilationists were taken somewhat seriously as a result, though this only slowed the process of their marginalization and destruction, especially if they sat on top of some particularly valuable natural resource or piece of land.What could be extracted and torn from the cultural context was seized upon, leaving the living culture itself to languish.
The assimilationists then found themselves in between a rock and a hard place: they were pitied by the traditionals for abandoning their culture and assimilating, and disrespected (and worse) by the Western culture they were trying to assimilate into.
Culture is a sort of resource. It displays one's value and existence to something that otherwise devalues and destroys everything foreign to it. However resources that can be broken off can be extracted, and capital usually finds a way to do this, if it is possible.
