The decline of Native American wealth

I hadn’t realized how devastating the effects of the Dawes Act of 1887 were, which dismantled many Native American reservations. Before 1912:

There was an unrealistic number of wealthy senior officials, contradicting the common perception of uniform poverty during this period. In 1912, the wealthiest superintendencies had net wealth levels of over $600,000 in 2019 real terms, while the net wealth per capita was $90 in the richest superintendency…

Our results suggest that, on average, Aboriginal people at the beginning of the twentieth century had a high level of wealth per capita, although there was wide variation in wealth levels. Between 1912 and 1927, wealth per capita fell by nearly 50 percent.

Each person’s native wealth used to exist above white wealth at the beginning of time.

Here is the AER version of the episode, by Donn. L. Feir, Maggie EC Jones, and Angela Redish. I don’t see versoins without small gates.



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