Meriam Report
The Meriam Report, officially titled "Problem of Indian Administration," was published in 1928 as a result of a nonpartisan investigation into U.S. Indian affairs commissioned by Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work. Led by Lewis Meriam, this comprehensive study critically assessed the policies and practices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), particularly highlighting the detrimental effects of the General Allotment Act of 1887 on Native American communities. The report called for significant reforms, including enhanced protection of Indian property rights and greater autonomy for Native Americans in managing their own affairs.
One of the central themes of the Meriam Report was education, where it emphasized the need for improved standards in BIA schools. The findings pointed out severe underfunding, inadequate nutrition, and poor living conditions that negatively impacted Native American students, sometimes leading to health issues like tuberculosis. Additionally, it criticized exploitative labor practices among students and the use of harsh disciplinary measures in schools. The report's recommendations eventually influenced changes in Indian education policy under the administration of President Herbert Hoover, aiming to create a more equitable and respectful approach toward Native American rights and education. The Meriam Report remains a significant document in the history of U.S. Indian policy, reflecting ongoing discussions about education, autonomy, and the treatment of Indigenous peoples.
Meriam Report
Date: 1928
Tribes affected: Pantribal
Significance: This report documented the failures of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to help Indian people and thus helped lead to the 1930’s reforms of John Collier’s Indian New Deal
In 1926, Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work asked the Institute for Government Research (Brookings Institution) at The Johns Hopkins University to conduct a nonpolitical investigation of Indian affairs. Work’s goal was to counter the harsh criticisms of John Collier and other Indian Office critics. The results of the Brookings study were published in 1928 as The Problem of Indian Administration, popularly known as the Meriam Report after Lewis Meriam, who headed the investigation. The report condemned the allotment policy that had been instituted with the passage of the General Allotment Act of 1887, as well as the poor quality of services provided Indian people by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). It urged protection for Indian property, and recommended Indians be allowed more freedom to manage their own affairs.
The Meriam Report emphasized the BIA’s educational role and called for higher academic standards in BIA schools. W. Carson Ryan, Jr., a prominent figure in the progressive education movement, wrote most of the education section of the Meriam Report, with help from Henry Roe Cloud (a Winnebago). The section on education and American Indians was influenced by the teachings of John Dewey and other progressive educators.
In 1921, all Indian schools had their appropriations for food and clothing cut 25 percent. These cuts were a result of government debts from World War I. This underfunding of BIA schools continued through the 1920’s. In one extreme case, a Red Cross investigator found Native American children to be subsisting on a diet of bread, black coffee, and syrup for breakfast; bread and boiled potatoes for dinner and supper; and a quarter cup of milk with each meal. In general, the Meriam Report found the food in boarding schools to be “deficient in quantity, quality and variety.” The poor food made Indian students more susceptible to tuberculosis and trachoma, which were endemic in Indian communities. Half-day student labor allowed the government to save even more money educating Indians, and the Meriam Report noted that some of the work required of students violated state child labor laws. Among other activities, students raised crops, worked in dairies, made and mended their own clothes, and cleaned their schools.
Flogging and other severe forms of punishment existed at some schools. The Meriam Report found that most BIA schools had locked rooms or isolated buildings used as “jails”; in some schools, children were forced to “maintain a pathetic degree of quietness.”
To quell the growing criticism of the government’s Indian policy, President Herbert Hoover in 1929 appointed a fellow Quaker and president of the Indian Rights Association, Charles J. Rhoads, to be commissioner of Indian affairs. Rhoads got Ryan to become director of Indian education. Rhoads and Ryan began to implement the recommendations of the Meriam Report, including an end to a uniform BIA curriculum that stressed only white cultural values.