Three essays on the impact of colonial institutions on the economic outcomes of Indigenous people in Manitoba (Canada) and Colombia

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Date
2015
Authors
Rosa Evelia, Sanchez Garcia
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Abstract
This dissertation includes 3 essays. The first essay answers the question: “is the influence of the Indian Act (on the lives of Indian persons) associated with worse economic outcomes?” This investigation focuses on Aboriginal persons who self-reported as First Nations persons (North American Indian), and compared the economic outcome of Status Indians (those affected by the Indian Act) with those of non-Status Indians (those not affected by the Act). The economic outcomes considered were: employment, income, housing, and education. The research results indicated that being a Status Indian was associated with a lower probability (lower odds ratio) of higher economic outcomes across all outcomes considered. The second essay addresses the question: “Do land access through resguardos (reserve lands) and ethno linguistic alienation/integration contribute to the relative income poverty of Colombian Indigenous peoples?” To answer this question this investigation regressed the income unmet basic need (IUBN) gap between Indigenous and non-minority people (at the municipal level) on a set of explanatory variables that included: the mean resguardo land size per family and the percent of municipal Indigenous populations that speak Spanish and their Native language. The results suggest that, for the Andean region, ethnolinguistic integration (speaking a Native language) was in important factor in decreasing the IUBN gap but, for the Amazonian region, ethnolinguistic acculturation (speaking Spanish) increased the IUBN gap. More resguardo land per family, however, tended to be associated with a larger IUBN gap. The third essay answers the research question: “What are the critical institutions governing the economic activities of the people on the Hollow Water First Nation’s Reserve?” Using a qualitative approach to identify and assess institutions, this paper finds that communal stewardship of land combined with a range of subordinate institutions guided traditional production for the Anishinabe of Hollow Water. Today, the Band Chief and Council, a subordinate institution to the Indian Act, is the largest on-reserve employer at the Hollow Water Reserve. Off-reserve work faces the challenge of overcoming poor on-reserve education and the dual disincentives of psycho-social trauma relating to current and past mistreatment of the Anishinabe and the availability of social assistance income (through the Indian Act).
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Aboriginal people economic development colonial institutions, Resguardo land, Indian Act, Hollow Water First Nation, Status Indian persons
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