The U.S. Office of Education funded the Adult Indian Education Project (AIEP) for 15 months to identify literacy levels and educational needs of adult American Indians in Oklahoma. Using Native American field interviewers, the AIEP surveyed a 1.8% random sample of adults from 19 tribal groups representing 70% of the Indian population of Oklahoma. Respondents were asked questions regarding: social background (sex, age, occupation, etc.); tribal characteristics (tribal membership, blood quantum, etc.); educational attainment; and functional literacy (occupational knowledge and consumer, health, and legal literacy). Findings indicated: almost 20% of the Indian adults were not included in the 1970 Oklahoma census of American Indians; 36% of the respondents spoke their tribal language and 32% preferred it to English; over 51% of the Indian adults had not completed high school; the illiteracy rate exceeded 20% in all areas, going to 42% in consumer literacy and 63% in general computation skills; 56.9% of the total Oklahoma adult Indians were functionally illiterate in one or more literacy areas, and 13.9% were literate in all literacy areas; illiteracy appeared to be reduced by high school equivalence programs and by continuing, vocational/technical and adult education programs; functional literacy correlated with the higher income levels. (JC)