Stinson (1993) noted, “Educators blame students for their lack of engagement but have appeared to have little interest in understanding how students perceive school and how they assign (or fail to assign) meaning and value to their experiences there”. This investigation attempted to gain insight into student engagement patterns of Native American (NA) students, a group with traditionally low levels of academic and physical activity engagement. Sixty students representing grades 3-12 were interviewed about their physical education engagement. Data were analyzed via a constant comparison process. Trustworthiness measures included triangulation and a search for negative cases. Engagement is often motivated by three factors: meaningful curriculum, meaningful relationships, and/or a desire for good grades. None of these factors were a strong influence for these students. Students reported little interest in and engagement with the recreational multi-activity curriculum. Justin explained, “Class should be more fun and more stuff we like. People don't want to run. I'd like to learn about the fitness center or other places to go and not just run laps.” Students also felt disengaged from meaningful relationships with their teachers, as Selena stated, “I don't trust any of them really. You've gotta have a personal connection. None of my teachers really know me.” Student reports on the effect of the teacher's ethnicity on relationship and engagement were mixed. With regard to grades, many students did not care about them as Marco described, “People don't really care so much about their grade so it doesn't matter if you lose points. If you don't want to do it you just don't do it.” The lack of meaningful content and relationships meant that teachers often relied on extrinsic techniques other than grades to gain compliance. Jason described the running club, “You run or walk and you get stickers and if you get 100 you get a prize, a pizza party.” Clearly a multi-pronged approach to changing these negative engagement patterns is needed. First, culturally relevant and meaningful curricula must be developed and implemented. Second, teachers must be better prepared to connect with and meet the needs of their NA students. This is particularly challenging given that most of the teachers come from traditional middle class backgrounds that are economically, socially, and philosophically different in many ways from the communities in which they are teaching. Connecting students to curricula and teachers can lead to engagement and learning.