Including Native literature in school curricula is an important way of enhancing the Native student's self-concept and providing accurate Native cultural knowledge to Native and non-Native students alike. Nevertheless, Canadian school literature programs generally contain neither contemporary nor traditional Native literature. Some programs contain "Native literature" written by non-Natives, but the writing tends to deal with non-Natives' reactions to Native people and may create new stereotypes. Literary critics have generally overlooked the unique qualities of Native literature. One significantly different aspect is oral transmission, now eroding in the face of Western preference for the written word. In the oral tradition, words are chosen with great care, creating a terse, forceful style. This reverence for the word and the sacredness of the utterance are distinguishing characteristics of Indian literature, along with a sense of place, feeling for ritual, affirmation of the need for community, and a significantly different world view. Just as allusions to Greek mythology and the Bible pervade Western literature, Native literature is full of Indian mythological references, such as the trickster, a picaresque anti-hero. Traditional poetry requires special understanding and teaching, in that its main purpose was to trap the universal mystery in a net of magical words and thereby obtain power. Traditional poetry does not contain rhyme, synonyms, or personification, but relies on rhythm and word pairing or "dualism," features which are often lost in translation. 22 references (SV)