This instructor has learned to proactively educate his Navajo students about the need to reveal certain information they normally keep among themselves, such as burial grounds, because federal law now protects them from violation -- but only if their location is known. What this suggests to me is that I may simply have to accept that some cultural distinctions may be important to my Native American students and that it may not be part of their culture to explain it to me. If an issue is important then it may be up to me to explain why something is important in the school's culture so the child can be more successful, but without suggesting that the school culture is better or superior. Finally, I think it will be important to incorporate literature from the cultures of minority students, recognizing that it isn't enough that the story be "Hispanic." A story from Mexico will have no meaning to a child from Cuba or Puerto Rico. The same sorts of distinctions will need to be made about my Native Americans: The Sioux do not tell the same stories the Cherokee and Navajo will (Bardwell et. al., 1996).

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