Economy of Assimilation: Land Policy in Aboriginal Communities

Abstract

<p>Beginning the 1880's, the United States government entered a period of active assimilation for Native peoples. Key to this programme was the practise of privatizing reserve lands, known as allotment. The complex structure of property rights that evolved out of the allotment era fractionated land title and locked Native peoples into forced co-ownership, making it impossible for land owners to coordinate economic activities and use land resources efficiently. While assimilationist policy makers sacrificed their short-term goals of allotting lands in private ownership, fractionation served their long-term objectives to force a change in informal economic institutions. By using allotment to limit enforcement mechanisms and exacerbate collective action problems, assimilationists destroyed Native community groups and eroded pro-social norms of cooperation to promote norms of individualism and independent action that corresponded to their vision of American mainstream values.</p>