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Native American History, Culture Gaining Traction in State Curricula

For decades, the Montana Constitution has made preservation of American Indian culture an explicit educational goal. But educators did little about it until 2004, when the state supreme court ruled that Montana had ignored its responsibility to teach about the state’s seven tribes.

That ruling jump-started an effort that has yielded curriculum materials created in consultation with those tribes, a state-sponsored curriculum Web site, and training workshops that have drawn thousands of teachers from across the state.

The push in Montana, where 11.4 percent of the students are Native American, mirrors a move in other states to make the history and culture of indigenous people a specific part of the curriculum, either by law...