One interesting way to treat this story is as an analysis of evangelical religion. Because Maritole wants to live and to thrive, she is actually open to considering Christianity. There are just a few problems with that: First of all, the Christianity being handed over is one that has been shaped by European history, so to the natives, it seems non-sequitur. Second, they are instructed to convert as if their current point of view is invalidate, and lastly, they are made to feel inferior.
What kind of a religion wants to communicate about itself in those ways? Notice that the Europeans were firmly convinced by the quality of their religion, but they have no reason to suspect that the Native American religion is broken or wrong. The assumption is that, just because their views are technically "Pagan," they are also logically wrong or evil or something. The Native roots of the religion might actually have broadened the Europeans' appreciation of their own religion, but something stands in their way.
What stands in their way is their limited understanding of subjective truth. The value of a religion is actually the religion's ability to connect people around pillars of belief that unite many subjective points of view, like justice and love (in Christianity), order and obedience (Judaism and Islam), and mystery (all of them). Instead of viewing the Natives as people who might actually enjoy religious discussions, they quickly turn the religion into an insider-outsider debate.
This is evident especially in the fact that the women in the Native American community actually do want to learn about Christianity. But, that's part of their religion already, to be open-minded to other points of view. Besides, the Europeans also have ancestors, so they might have been inspired by the Native religion. If nothing else, a person's religion is an opportunity to see the world their way, so the Europe-centrism of the Europeans prevents them from empathizing.
