After all, the Maoris are indigenous to New Zealand, and Pfeiffer's ancestors hailed from what is now southeastern Utah and northern Arizona. That's a 7,000-mile gap.

The exchange confirmed Pfeiffer's belief that many Utahns - American Indians included - haven't a clue about Indian culture and its significance to state and national history.

She and Utah tribal leaders hope that ignorance will subside once education officials infuse the state's social studies classes with a more complete accounting of American Indian history.

"All we hear about are pioneers, pioneers, pioneers," says Pfeiffer, a 46-year-old Bountiful mother of four schoolchildren. "People need to realize that our people were here first, and I think these Native American kids need to know more about their heritage. When you don't know your background or history, these minority kids tend to falter, to feel lost."

Utah's Office of Education is using a $114,000 grant from the Daniels Fund, a Denver-based philanthropic group, to write lesson plans designed to give Utah teachers and students a more complete understanding of state and U.S. history. The lessons will be piloted in a few districts and then revised as needed.

The additions will broaden the existing curriculum in grades 4, 5, 7, 8 and 11 to include the culture, language, art and living conditions of various tribes, including five native to Utah: Ute, Din (Navajo), Paiute, Goshute and Shoshone.

New lesson plans also will examine the impact of westward expansion on tribes, how the conflicts between Indians and Utah pioneers factored into the struggle for statehood and how federal policies, assimilation for example, changed Indian culture. Some of the lessons will be uncomfortable, including accounts of violence in which either Anglos or Indians were the instigators.

"You can't get away from the issues that American Indians faced in the past and today," says Dolores Riley, a longtime Utah educator who is consulting with the state Office of Education to develop the instruction and materials. "We hope to address the stereotypes, biases and provide a more clear picture of American Indians throughout history."

Indian leaders say the additions are long overdue. "It has everything to do with how seriously we take the education of culturally different people in the state," says Forrest Cuch, a Ute and director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs. "And for American Indians, it has a lot to do with self esteem and how we view ourselves as a people. Everyone has basically written our history for us, and no one has sat down to talk with us about that."

While the state's social studies curriculum requires students to learn about Utah's development, including Indian contributions, the depth of their exposure depends largely on their teachers. The new lesson plans should make it easier to go into greater detail.

"The ultimate goal is to get [this material] in the hands of the social studies teachers and have them use it," Riley says.

Today, teachers have few choices in instructional material. A tally of online lesson plans approved by the state Office of Education shows 20 lessons about the pioneer experience and just two about Indians:

l One tells how a pioneer girl fended off an Indian raid by praying to the "Great Spirit" and forcefully telling the Indians that the Spirit would kill them if they hurt the pioneer group. The lesson plan characterizes the historical account as a "happy event" and a "positive example" of an Indian-pioneer encounter because it didn't end in bloodshed.

l The second covers the hardships and losses suffered by the Cherokee as they walked The Trail of Tears from the Southeast to Oklahoma in 1838.

Some might wonder why it has taken so long to add more instruction to such an important part of Utah's history. "In social studies, there's so much to cover," Riley says. "It's the story of people's lives and societies and nations, and sometimes we take for granted the most obvious thing around."

Other Western states have recently embarked on similar efforts, says Nola Lodge-Hurford, a clinical instructor of Indian studies and director of the University of Utah's American Indian teacher-training program. Lodge-Hurford is one of several Indians helping to develop the lessons.

"Often I have students come to me and say, 'Why didn't I hear any of this before?' she says. "We're late on it, but you can only go as fast as people are ready to go."

For Cuch, the lessons take on an even greater significance. He would like to see Indian curriculum expanded to include, perhaps, the expertise of the Smithsonian Institution and the U.'s American West Center.

Meantime, he says the lessons are one step toward improving academic achievement among Indian children and, by extension, tribes' economic prospects.

"It's been a lifelong challenge for me," he says. "There's a correlation between education and business development. We need to improve the educational development of our kids. It's a life or death matter. I take it that seriously."

rlynn@sltrib.com

For a closer look at proposed lesson plans on American Indians, visit:

* http://historytogo.utah.gov

* http://www.umnh.utah.edu/museum/exhibits/firstnations/

* http://crabcoll.com/Ute/text/legends.html

* http://www.lapahie.com/Creation.cfm

* http://thefurtrapper.com/fremont indians.htm

* http://www.nativevoices.org/articles/Kennedy.html