| Summary: | While acknowledging the achievements of culturally relevant science programs, the writer suggests that many such programs may entail unintended negative consequences for Native American culture. She begins by examining some assumptions that tend to characterize mainstream science classrooms and some of the contrasting assumptions that may appear in various traditional Indian thought systems. She discusses some specific examples of culturally relevant science programs, demonstrating their tendency to overlook or deemphasize the differences just explored. She argues that the outcome of such neglect is likely to be that Indian traditional knowledge is severely damaged or even destroyed. She concludes by considering what science programs might look like if they pressed innovations in culturally relevant programming toward an insistence on the legitimacy of traditional Indian models of inquiry into the natural world.
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