I didn’t realize how negative the effects were the Dawes Act of 1887, which broke up many Native American reservations. Before 1912:
There were a significant number of relatively wealthy superintendencies, which runs counter to the common perception of uniform poverty during this period. In 1912, the richest superintendency had a level of total wealth per capita above $600,000 in real 2019 terms, while total wealth per capita was only $90 in the least wealthy superintendency…
Our results suggest that on average, indigenous peoples in the early 20th century had substantial levels of per capita wealth, although there was great diversity in wealth levels. Between 1912 and 1927, per capita wealth declined by almost 50 percent.
Indigenous wealth per capita had been above white wealth at the beginning of the period.
Here is the AER version of the piece, by Donn. L. Feir, Maggie EC Jones and Angela Reddish. I don’t see any less closed sides.
