The purpose of the study was to investigate the level of language comprehension which rural American Caucasian and Indian children have upon entering kindergarten and after 20 weeks of school. The results indicated that the rural Caucasian children scored no differently than the national norms for the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language either at the beginning or after 20 weeks of school, although significant gains were observed over this period. The rural Indian children scored significantly lower both at the beginning and after 20 weeks of school. Significant growth was also noted during this period. Implications centering on more appropriate language instruction at an earlier point in the Indian child's school experience were discussed.