Input fields are coming up empty

[eluser]jrock2004[/eluser]
I have been looking at this code too long and I am sure I am missing something. When I hit submit and I grab the input fields, they are empty.

View

Code:

<div id="login_form">
<h1>Login</h1>
    &lt;?php
echo form_open('admin/validate_credentials');
echo form_input('username', 'Username');
echo form_password('password', 'Password');
echo form_submit('submit', 'Login');
    ?&gt;
</div>&lt;!-- end login_form--&gt;

Controller

Code:

public function index() {
  $this->load->library('session');
  $this->load->helper('form');

  $data['content'] = 'admin/login';

        $this->load->view('admin/template.php', $data);
}

function validate_credentials() {
  $this->load->helper('form');
  $this->load->library('session');
  $this->load->model('membership');
  $query = $this->membership->validate();
  
  if($query) { // if the user's credentials validated...
   $data = array(
    'username' => $this->input->post('username'),
    'is_logged_in' => true
   );
   $this->session->set_userdata($data);
   redirect('adminArea/main');
  }
  else { // incorrect username or password
   $this->index();
   echo "Login failed" . $this->input->post('username');
  }
}

Thanks for any help