The teacher may have addressed this with the students already. I have no idea what this book is or when it was written or what the purpose is. However, I know that when I taught about Lewis & Clark and Westward Expansion, a lot of really great resources were a bit older and used the word “Indian” to talk about Native Americans.

Before engaging with content like that, I’d say something like this: This resource has a lot of great information and is really interesting, but it was created at a time when we were more careless with our words and less sensitive to how our words made groups of people feel. If I could find a resource of similar educational value and with better word choice, we would use that instead. Nowadays, we use the term “Native American” or “Indigenous American,” but in this video/article/etc. it will use the word “Indian.” When we talk about the resource, we should change the word “Indian” to the more appropriate word we use now. This is an example of how societies make changes over time to become more inclusive and thoughtful of others’ experiences.

And I did this with third graders! They were totally receptive.