`I have to find out the names of Native American tribes,' announced Daniel. His class was studying the early history of North America.

After Apache, Comanche and Sioux he was running out of inspiration. I suddenly realised how few cowboy movies or shows appear on television today. When I was young, John Wayne and Rin Tin Tin ruled the airwaves. Our catchphrase was "Geronimo!" Now I couldn't remember whether Geronimo was a chief or a tribal name. Undeterred, Daniel pored over a map of the United States and jotted down any likely sounding Indian names like Dakota and Topeka. I mentioned the homework quest casually to my mother when we met for coffee.

The result was a call for Daniel from Grandad. with recommendations of his favourite classic Westerns. He went on to explain how traditionally Hollywood used to portray all Indians as the baddies, prior to revisionist movies such as Dances with Wolves.

Daniel's older sister provoked a dinnertime discussion as to whether Daniel Day Lewis fought with or against the Huron in The Last of the Mohicans. Was this where the punk haircut originated from, Daniel wondered.

"Where are all the Indians now?" led to a comparison between reservations and refugee camps. Why was such a wealthy, powerful country as the US so "mean" to its minorities? We raised more questions than we could answer, but I felt that Daniel had been stretched by his research - and that, surely, is the point of homework.

"How did history go?" I asked the next day.

"It's not fair," moaned Daniel. "I did loads of work last night. Mark came in with dozens of tribal names which he printed off the Internet and he won a gold star for his team."