Read the excerpt from "Last Rites of the Indian Dead."
The total Indian body count in the Smithsonian collection is more than 19000 and it is not the largest in the country. It is not inconceivable that the 1.5 million of us living today are outnumbered by our dead stored in museums educational institutions federal agencies state historical societies and private collections. The Indian people are further dehumanized by being exhibited alongside the mastodons and dinosaurs and other extinct creatures.
Why does Harjo use the word dehumanized instead of words like disrespected or degraded?
Question 9 options:

It has a more negative connotation to indicate that American Indians have been nearly driven to the point of extinction.

It has a weaker connotation to emphasize that American Indians have lost their sense of identity after years of mistreatment.

Dehumanized has a stronger connotation and conveys American Indians have been treated as objects or animals rather than people.

Dehumanized has a more neutral connotation to show that actions against the American Indians were based on necessity not emotion.

The reason for the use of words by Harjo is C) Dehumanized has a stronger connotation and conveys that American Indians have been treated as objects or animals, rather than people.

What is Diction?

This refers to the use of words to pass across a message to people in order to persuade them or any other functions.

Hence, we can see that from the given text, there is the narration by Harjo about the treatment of the American Indians and he uses diction to show his displeasure that contains a very strong connotation.