This in-depth interview study of the schooling experiences of 120 First Nations, American Indian, and Alaska Native students contributes to understandings of their literacy motivation, highlighting tensions between their insights on literacy learning and literacy practices implicated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. With NCLB in full swing and slated for reauthorization, teachers often feel compelled to ignore intrinsic literacy motivators: students' curiosity and desire for self-expression, self-determination, and feelings of competence. Yet as these Native students report, intrinsic motivation (1) opens up space for them to learn in ways that are congruent with their own of being, (2) provides real audiences and purposes to express those ways of being, (3) shows paths for identity construction through literacy, and (4) constructs two-way bridges to the mainstream world. So that these children will not be "left behind," we must listen carefully to their gathered voices.