My husband is part Cherokee, and in his history classes in junior college, he was pretty much taught the "noble savage" myth. He was very disappointed when his father told him about the Cherokee part of the family: bootleggers, knife fighters, husband-beaters :-).
I'm looking forward to seeing the American Indian museum. We saw lots of interesting things in Oklahoma (Indian Territory) and heard some original oral tradition from our neighbors and friends. A lady on our street had grown up speaking the Creek language.
The important thing to remember is that people are all alike, irrespective of race. Some good, some less good. Some heroic, some horrific. Some situations, like the epidemics and the Indian wars, are simply tragic. It doesn't mean one side was good and one side was evil ... it just means that a lot of bad stuff happens.
When investigating any culture, it's best to have a balanced approach. Schools teach the noble savage myth because that's what evolutionary racialists believed and it's also very PC. However, going the other way and insinuating all the indian people are drunks and the like is just as bad. I liked hanging out with the Navajo students a lot and they were incredibly open and happy.