The lack of high school and college mathematics is a major barrier to Native Americans, particularly women, seeking careers in technological fields. Mathematics should be studied because it is functional, is interesting, and expands an individual's universe. In the college classroom, the mathematics students find that classes are large; only 15% of the students learn from a particular class; mathematics sometimes requires special reading and listening skills; professors teach one model of problem and assign another; students do more "homework" in clock hours for math than any other study, except computer science; the quicker students learn, the more problems they have to work; remedial classes are often a re-run of the teaching techniques that first made students hate math; 22% of undergraduate and 40% of graduate mathematics majors are foreign nationals; graduate assistants teach most of the courses, correct the problems and tests; and professors lecture and conduct research. Some things Native Americans can do to survive mathematics classes include: taking a friend to math class; looking for other textbooks on the same course; taking a course in reading mathematics; getting to know their professor, teaching assistant, tutor; going to class; setting aside time each day for math study; and having a good self-concept. (NQA)