Research has suggested that mainstream teachers, and the institutions they work for, are often disconnected from the language, culture, and approaches to learning that facilitate Native students' achievement in school (Deyhle & Swisher, 1997; Klug & Hall, 2002; Lomawaima, 2001; Pewewardy, 2002; Reyhner & Jacobs, 2002; Tharp, 2006). Yet, while the overall Native population has increased over the past few decades, the number of Native teachers has decreased (Writer & Chavez, 2002). As a result, many Native students will be taught by non-Native teachers with limited training in cultural competency. Cultural competency in this context refers to teachers' knowledge of and ability to incorporate their students' cultural, social, and linguistic backgrounds into curriculum and instruction (Banks et al., 2005). Similar to other school districts serving Native students, all of the classroom teachers and administrators in this study in Farmingdale, New York are non-Native. Farmingdale is a reservation border town district with a rapidly growing Mohawk student population. Despite this growth and the persistent cultural divide between faculty and students, Farmingdale has provided limited professional development opportunities on Mohawk cultural competency for the non-Native staff. The primary goal of this research was to study the interactions between Native and non-Native participants as they worked to create a professional development program for the district. The points of conflict and contention were then used as a platform for addressing the issues through teacher education. By uncovering Native and non-Native stakeholders' perspectives, four general areas of conflict between the communities were found including: contrasting conceptions of cultural competency, cultural disconnect, intercultural miscommunication, and issues of trust. Through uncovering and analyzing these areas of conflict, a model of cultural competency professional development intended for the Farmingdale District with implications for other schools serving Native students was developed. (Contains 1 note and 2 figures.)