Abstract

This study investigates the construction, structures, and meaning of American-Indian knowledge as expressed by 12 older American-Indian adults living in Chicago. When asked what American-Indian knowledge these elders valued, their answers opened up a vast world of traditional knowledge and experience grounded in the ancient past and reaching beyond the borders of today's formal schooling. ;The data for this study were collected through a process of ethnographic and phenomenological investigation. Interview narratives were analyzed and coded to identify emerging themes. The three major themes of this study are: the wisdom of the elders, traditional learning and practice, and Indian classrooms in life. ;The following conclusions can be drawn from the study: American-Indian adults can learn traditional knowledge through the experiencing of life with American-Indian elders and the serving of apprenticeships with them; traditional knowledge and traditional knowledge transmission still exist today and require more rigorous dedication than formal schooling to acquire; and the arena of traditional knowledge is neither the formal classroom as we know it nor the world of the written word. ;Implications for adult education practice and research include the need for adult educators to recognize the existence and value of American-Indian traditional knowledge and the elders who possess it, and the need to explore orality and life experience in traditional knowledge transmission