The IGR appointed Lewis Meriam to be the technical director of the survey team to compile information and report on the conditions of American Indians across the country.
The report combined narrative with statistics to criticize the Department of Interior's (DOI) implementation of the Dawes Act and overall conditions on reservations and in Indian boarding schools.
The 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.
The IGR required team members to be "persons highly qualified as specialists in their respective fields, scientific in their approach, not sensationalists, and free from preconceived views and opinions that would interfere with their impartiality and fairness in gathering and interpreting the facts.
Brown (legal aspects), Henry Roe Cloud (Indian adviser), Edward Everett Dale (economic conditions), Emma Duke (Indian migration to urban areas), Dr. Herbert Edwards (physician) (health), Fayette Avery McKenzie (source materials), Mary Louise Mark (family life), W. Carson Ryan, Jr. (education), and William J. Spillman (agriculture).
[6] Authorized by the Institute for Government Research on June 12, 1926, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, the Meriam Commission was charged with investigating the affairs of Indians in the United States.
The report showed 23 states having more than 1,000 Native American inhabitants, the top three being Oklahoma, Arizona, and South Dakota.
"[Interior Secretary] Work insisted that the survey be completed within one year, so that he might effect changes before a new administration took office in Washington.
"[12] In the report, the survey team included extensive recommendations for the correction of deficiencies, notably in health, education, and government cooperation for legal and social issues.
The report also states: "Little attempt has been made to formulate a broad constructive program for the service as a whole, extending over a long term of years, and having for its goal the general improvement of economic conditions.
[23] President Hoover appointed Rhoads to put together a reform package which included the closure of unpopular reservation boarding schools and improved medical facilities.
In the four fiscal years prior to the initiation of the study, 1922–1926, approximately 10,000 Native Americans were allotted over 3 million acres from their Reservations.