The purpose of this paper is to critique the manner in which history about American Indians has been written and propose a rationale for the rethinking of what we know about this subject. In particular, histories of education as regards the participation of American Indians is a subject that has been given scant attention over the years and when it has been discussed, it usually is in the context of how Europeans sent Christian missionaries amongst tribes and imposed Christianity by teaching them to read the bible. The problems raised by contemporary approaches to the educating and schooling of American Indian children, including calls for an indigenous pedagogy, add to the urgency of renewed research in this area.