To prepare for writing this article, we reviewed many academic tomes, from anthropology to zoology, and perused many decades’ worth of ethnographic studies of American Indian elders and elders from other groups around the world. We wanted not only to describe elderly American Indians but also to build the argument that elders are of critical importance for American Indian families and communities and have been of critical importance for tens of thousands of years. We wanted to construct the fundamental argument that in virtually all species with large brains and long childhoods, elders are of critical importance. This is as true in caribou as it is in humans; it is as true in American Indians as it is in whites, African Americans, and Asians. It is true because elders are the holders of ancient wisdom about the conduct and management of social behavior and about strategies for protecting the vulnerable from the problems that consistently arise in anyone’s life.
In reviewing the literature, it was a bit startling to move from the period that encompassed the late 1800s to the 1940s. This literature includes strong and clear descriptions of the important role of American Indian elders, the wisdom of their words, and the respect that their position held; hundreds of detailed descriptions of the importance of the elders and their knowledge—
how their wisdom saved their people—and stories of great personal self-sacrifice made by the elders in order to protect their people; and many discussions about the vast amount of time that elders put into nurturing and educating the young.
