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In recognition of the past and potential contributions of American Indian philosophy, this book presents discussions which came out of a week long conference at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Conference participants included Native American elders (representatives from the Navajo, Mohawk, Crow, Kiowa, Pueblo, and Arapaho tribes) and officials of the Myrin Institute for Adult Education who met in an effort to identify and comprehend the "intuitive wisdom" which characterizes American Indian philosophy. Focusing on the business of child rearing from birth to adolescence, the discussions are organized into 16 chapters which are titled as follows: (1) "The Spiritual Heritage of the American Indian"; (2) "Childbirth"; (3) "Discipline of the Cradle Board"; (4) "The Power of the Word" (emphasis on the difference between language spoken as a child and that spoken as an adult); (5) "Foundation of the Early Year"; (6) "Sleeping and Waking" (the finality of 1 day and the joy of another); (7) "Instilling the Wish to Obey"; (8) "Adolescence--A New Phase"; (9) "The Role of the Grandparents"; (10) "Family and Clan Structure"; (11) "The Home"; (12) "Nature"; (13) "The Magic Mission of the American Indian"; (14) "The Modern Indian's Dilemma"; (15) "First Steps Toward a Solution"; (16) "In Pursuit of a Common Good". (JC)

Edited proceedings of the 1968 Denver Conference of Indian Elders (a joint project sponsored by the Myrin Institute with the coorperation of Arrow Incorporated and the Bureau of Indian Affairs) are presented in book form for purposes of exploring the extent to which American Indian philosophy/religion can be utilized to help solve the complex social ills of the present. Since the Conference emphasized education, morality and character, man's relation to nature, and man's relation to man as manifest in Indian ceremonies, the testimony recorded in these proceedings is divided into the following sections: (1) The Conference Starts (an overview of the purpose and intent of the Conference); (2) Indian Beliefs; (3) Education and Religion; (4) Origin of Indian Peoples; (5) Indian Myths and Legends; (6) Apache Rituals; and (7) Summing Up (a representative remark is "...our civilization is one-sided; blessed by an abundance of intellectual abilities and technological skills, it is sadly lacking in an intuitive grasp of qualitative values such as the pursuit of true happiness through love of man and nature, through philosophical contemplation, and through religious experience."). Conference participants are identified as: Allen Quetone (Kiowa); Will Rogers, Jr. (Cherokee); Ben Black Elk (Oglala Sioux); David Kindle (Navajo); Alfred Bowman (Navajo); Guy Quetone (Kiowa); Alex Saluskin (Yakima); Chief Joshua Wetsit (Assiniboine). (JC)