Many American Indian youth confront a choice of forfeiting their cultural heritage in favor of academic achievement. The newly established American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul (Minnesota) addresses this issue by integrating American Indian methodology and ideology across all curriculum areas through effective teaching and sensitivity to learning styles of all students. The school serves 300 Indian and non-Indian students in Grades K-8, and uses cooperative teaching methods, whole language instruction, multicultural literature, and noncompetitive assessment methods. The school provided action research to rediscover the teaching and child-rearing practices of traditional Native peoples and to blend "practice into theory." This paper also discusses: (1) characteristics needed by teachers of Indian students; (2) elements of a teacher education curriculum that espouses a culturally responsible pedagogy for Indian children; (3) recommendations for classroom techniques; (4) the importance of language preservation programs; (5) the debate over the form of Native language instruction; (6) "cultural literacy" and the literary canon versus multicultural education; (7) matching teaching and learning styles; (8) American Indian Studies programs; and (9) developing links between school and tribal community. (Contains 18 references.) (SV)