The Loss of American Indian Life and Culture. As American settlers pushed westward, they inevitably came into conflict with Indian tribes that had long been living on the land. The result was devastating for the Indian tribes, which lacked the weapons and group cohesion to fight back against such well-armed forces.
This report found generally that the federal government was failing at its goals of protecting Native Americans, their land, and their resources, both personal and cultural.
After the Meriam report, Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work proposed that the Rockefeller Foundation support a survey by the Institute for Government Research. Five years after the Meriam Report, the Federal government began overhauling its Native American policy with the Wheeler-Howard Act (Indian Reorganization Act of 1934).
