This chapter addresses the significance of culture in bilingual education both in the United States and globally. It discusses the meaning of culture, drawing from diverse perspectives in anthropology and sociology. The chapter presents a historical overview of how culture has been understood as part of bilingual and multilingual education, both in international contexts and in the United States. It analyzes how culture has been misunderstood and misapplied, from superficial treatments in curricula to more deeply grounded ideologies. In addition, because language maintenance and language reclamation have been tied to issues of cultural integrity and survival, the chapter illustrates this point with several examples. It concludes with a discussion on how culture can be more thoroughly theorized to be an essential component of bilingual and multilingual education.