Historical Wrongs and Socioeconomic Participation: Evidence from Forced-Coexistence and Voter Turnout Rates in Indigenous America
Date
2022-09-23
Authors
Marra, Fab
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Abstract
There is a fraught history between the United States federal government and American Indian Nations. Recent literature has argued that Native nations that were historically subject to more interventionist federal policies have worse economic outcomes today. In this paper, I provide evidence that a specific historical intervention that has been shown to impact economic development, specifically the forced political co-existence of distinct American Indian bands on reservations, also impacts voting behavior. I demonstrate that presidential election voter rates in 2012 and 2016 are roughly 2-3 percentage points lower in counties that contain a reservation in which bands were forced to coexist versus counties than contain a reservation that weren’t subject to forced coexistence. Marriage rates and more recent Native American incomes are also lower. As a falsification test, I provide evidence that incomes for individuals identifying as white living on these same reservations are not significantly affected. I argue this is consistent with political, social and economic withdrawal and indicative of mistrust of government among a particular identity group due to historical wrongs. I provide evidence as to whether the measures of withdrawal I use can explain worse economic conditions faced by American Indian individuals living on reservations where bands were forced to co-exist.
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Keywords
Indigenous, Economics, Trust, Civic, Socioeconomic, Participation, Engagement, Historical Persistence, Disenfranchisement, Identity, Institutions