Coding a Native American Star Quilt

How & Why We Made This Curriculum

This curriculum began with a collaboration between myself and a teacher working on a reservation within the Lakota Nation. He and his principal had the idea to use geometry and pattern recognition to help students recreate the Morning Star quilt, a sacred Lakota symbol, while deepening their understanding of math concepts. As we worked together, we expanded the idea to include coding, inviting students to build the quilt digitally using loops, angles, and repeating patterns in Code.org’s Artist tool. The Morning Star, traditionally made of repeating rhombus shapes, symbolizes guidance, wisdom, and the path spirits take to earth. Once made from buffalo hide and now fabric, its evolution reflects the resilience and creativity of Native traditions and this module brings it into a new medium: code.

To ensure students could see themselves in the world of computer science, I partnered with Brodie Gullic, a Cherokee software engineer at Pinterest. Brodie helped shape the narrative and reviewed the script for cultural accuracy, and he also appears in the introductory video as a living example of what’s possible for Native students in tech.

Later, I connected with Principal Lance West through a BBC StoryWorks project, and we filmed the module in his school on the Walker River Paiute Reservation in Nevada. Though Lance wasn’t involved in the curriculum’s creation, his students were already using the lesson, and it was powerful to see how the combination of culture, math, and code could spark pride and engagement in classrooms far beyond where it started.

Lack of Native American Representation in Tech

Native American students are among the most underrepresented and underserved groups in U.S. education. National data shows they often perform two to three grade levels behind their white peers in reading and mathematics, and they are twice as likely to drop out of school. These statistics are not reflective of students’ potential, but of systemic inequities, including a lack of culturally relevant curriculum, limited access to technology, and minimal representation in STEM fields. Too often, Native voices and histories are absent from the classroom, and Native students don’t see themselves reflected in the stories, tools, or careers they’re being prepared for.

This module was designed to counter that invisibility, not by speaking for Native communities, but by co-creating with educators and leaders from within them. Centering the Morning Star quilt was a way to bridge traditional knowledge with 21st-century skills, showing students that coding can be a tool for storytelling, symbolism, and self-expression. Featuring Brodie Gullic as a Native software engineer and elevating the leadership of Principal Lance West helps expand the narrative of who belongs in computer science. Representation isn’t just about who’s visible, it’s about who’s valued. This project aims to make that value felt in every lesson.