The two schools that Education World visited -- Indian Island School and Beatrice Rafferty School -- receive funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in addition to other federal money such as Title I; they also receive funding from the state of Maine. The Maine schools are among 187 schools located on 63 Indian reservations in 23 U.S. states.

The Native Americans in northern Maine are among an estimated 2.1 million Native Americans in the U.S., according to the 1990 Census. Within the native population, there are 250 living languages and dialects spoken by about 282,000 individuals, which is about one-eighth of the entire native population.

The two reservations Education World visited reflect the national economic profile of Native Americans, according to the 1990 census data. Native Americans generally are poor: about one-third live in poverty compared with 13 percent of the U.S. population. Native Americans' per capita income is $8,232 compared with the average U.S. per capita income of $14,420. Their unemployment rate of 14.4 percent is significantly higher than the national rate of 6.3 percent.

Native Americans also have a lower overall high school graduation rate: about 65 percent earn a high school diploma compared with 75.2 percent of the U.S. population. Their college graduation rate is also much lower, with 9.3 percent earning a college degree compared with the national average of 20.3 percent.

Educating our nation's Native American children has changed dramatically over the past 400 years. When indigenous Americans were in charge of teaching their children, they did so by playing games, telling stories, practicing hunting, as well as teaching other skills the children would need to survive. That would change as Europeans came to control this continent -- and eventually the Native American culture. The traditional European-style education emphasized structured classroom learning and rote memorization -- a stark contrast from the native style of hands-on learning, which took place mostly outdoors.

More than 200 years ago, the U.S. government viewed most Native Americans as enemies, and its policy was to remove tribes from their lands, often by force. Later, the government's role shifted to assimilating Native Americans into mainstream American society as it became trustee for their tribal lands and monies. Part of the method to assimilate Indians was to remove native children from their parents' homes and board them at schools where they were forbidden to speak their native language.

During the 1900s, the push to absorb Native Americans into American society gradually changed. In 1975, the U.S. government permitted Native Americans to become autonomous. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribes then were allowed to preserve their culture and reclaim their future. Since that time there has been a resurgence of interest in native studies at reservation schools, while at the same time, they prepare students academically for mainstream public and private high schools.