Report Staff included:
Secretary of Interior meeting with Native American Tribal Leaders
- Lewis Meriam (Technical Director)
- Ray A. Brown (Legal Aspects)
- Henry Roe Cloud (Indian Adviser)
- Edward Everett Dale (Economic Conditions)
- Emma Duke (Indian migration to Urban areas)
- Dr. Herbert R. Edwards: Physician (Health)
- Fayette Avery Mckenize (Source Materials)
- Mary Louise Mark (Family Life)
- W. Carson Ryan, JR. (Education)
- William J. Spillman (Agriculture)
Meriam Report
Was the first general study of Indian conditions since the 1850's. When the ethnologist and former U.S. Indian agent Henry R. Schoolcraft had completed a six volume work for the U.S. Congress.
On February 21st 1928 a field survey was conducted. Mainly all Western states with pretty large Indian populations were surveyed.
Change We Can Believe In
The Report entailed
- General policy for Indian Affairs
- Health
- Education
- General Economic Conditions
- Family and Community life and the activities of women
- Migrated Indians
- Legal aspects of the Indian problem
- Missionary activities among Indians
“They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one.
They promised to take our land, and they took it.”
--An Anonymous Native American
Decades of growing concern about the direction of U.S. Indian policy. " There was an overwhelming majority of the Indians that were poor, even extremely poor, and they were not adjusted to the economic and social system of the dominant white civilization" according to the report ( Meriam, 1928,3) Other factors such as Indian Removal Act of 1830, The Reservation System, and the Dawes Allotment Act all lead to the further investigation of Native American welfare.
Results Continued......
- The Indian Termination Act of 1953
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- The Indian Education Act of 1972
- Self-Determination Assistance Act of 1975
Results
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA) was brought before Congress by John Collier. Collier was the new commissioner of Indian Affairs and in 1933 addressed many of the issues flagged in the Meriam Report. This repealed the Indian General Allotment Act and restored tribal self-government. John Collier played a very influencal part in Native American rights, he emphasized removing the bureaucratic stranglehold of the BIA from Indian communities and the lack of Indian employees in the Bureau. Collier pushed for Natives to be allowed to have their culture, religion, and language included in the classroom.
Meriam Report(1928)
"The Problem of Indian Administration"