Too many classroom materials still present Native American traditions as rigid, fixed, and fragile. In fact, over two million Native Americans live in what is now the United States, about half of them live in cities and towns and the other half on reservations or in rural areas. The groups living here prior to the 1540's did not have horses, glass beads, wheat, or wagons. Similarly, Native American groups should not be equated with other ethnic minorities. No other minority within the United States is in a similar legal position.
Native peoples view themselves as separate nations within a nation.
U.S. laws and treaties, officially endorsed by U.S. presidents and the Congress, confirm that status. If you have Native American children in your class, do not assume that they know all about their own ancestry and the ancestry of all Native Americans. All children including Native American children need to be taught about the Native American heritage, which, in a very real sense, is the heritage of everybody living in the U.S. today. Culture and ideas, after all, are learned and not inherent from birth. Heinrich, June Sark.