Rethinking the Meriam Report in Education History: The Real Problem With Indian Administration, 1921–1945

• In Event: Settler Colonial Educational Policies and Practices in the U.S. Empire

Abstract

This paper examines the early-20th century educational contexts affecting Indigenous children and youth that have continued to contribute to systemic inequalities in the present. It also seeks to make an intervention in the field of education history by shifting collective thinking about the impact and legacy of the generally lauded Meriam Report. Through an explicit discourse analysis of the 872-page policy report, and subsequently relying on both primary source documents from the National Archives and disparate literature on education in Native American communities, this research pushes back on the notions that Indian boarding schools ended in 1928, or that the Meriam Report itself led to significant improvements in education for Native peoples.

Author

• M. Nathan Tanner, University of Nevada - Reno