Native American employment and unemployment (historical trends)

• TRIBES AFFECTED: Pantribal

SIGNIFICANCE: Before contact with Europeans, the labor of Indigenous Americans served group or tribal purposes; employment and unemployment patterns in the twentieth century reflected the profound disruption of life that occurred following contact.

In the pre-contact period, Indigenous Americans had extensive trading networks throughout Canada, the United States, and Central and South America. Agricultural goods, manufactured items such as jewelry, pottery, and tanned hides, and natural resources such as seashells were bartered or sold.

Traditional Labor

Labor was required to sustain this extensive trade network, but little is known about how the labor systems were organized. Tribal groups in the Mississippi River area, the southwestern United States, and Central and South America had highly specialized labor forces in which both men and women participated. Division of labor was determined in part by gender, talent, and social position. These societies were organized hierarchically and sometimes incorporated enslaved people taken captive from other tribes who performed undesirable labor.

Much of North America and Canada was inhabited by nomadic hunting and gathering societies and semisedentary agriculturalists. In these societies, division of labor was based primarily on gender and was less complex, with most tribal members working toward the common goal of providing food, shelter, and clothing for survival. In these subsistence economies, there was little opportunity for members to specialize in any one area, such as art or medicine. Such cultures stressed sharing and egalitarianism as a way to ensure the well-being of the people. Everyone worked for the common good.

Arrival of Europeans

European migration to North America was primarily motivated by economic interests. The first phase of European-Indigenous relations revolved around the fur trade, which required the incorporation of Indigenous labor. The early period of the fur trade was marked by relative equality among Europeans and Indigenous people. Indigenous men and women labored to supply processed hides and pelts for the fur trade. In return for their labor, Indigenous people were paid with European trade goods—metal pots, needles, knives, guns, and a variety of domestic goods. During this period, those Indigenous people who obtained European trade goods would redistribute them among tribal members, thus maintaining the tribal ideal of generosity and sharing. The trade goods changed the work patterns of both Indigenous men and women. Guns and traps permitted more men to hunt and kill more game, and, in turn, women were required to tan more hides for trade. Indigenous labor during this period was still directed toward the good of the tribe, but increasingly, tribal welfare depended on sources outside the tribe.

The fur trade was an important source of labor for Indigenous Americans, but the fur trade period ended as animal populations decreased and as European fashion changed. The decline in the fur trade coincides with the emergence of the United States and marks a period of change in the economic position of Indigenous people, who were no longer needed as laborers in the new economy. The European American population was rapidly increasing, and there was an increased desire for land. Indigenous nations became a hindrance in this emerging economic system. The relative lack of demand for Indigenous labor, coupled with the high demand for Indigenous land, caused the US government to remove Indigenous nations from areas coveted by European Americans and resettle them on poor lands.

The reservation system was firmly in place by the late nineteenth century, and it caused considerable change in the work patterns of tribal groups. For the most part, hunting and fishing were no longer possible on the restricted land base, and traditional agricultural practices were not viable or were discouraged. The reservation system afforded little opportunity for Indigenous people to provide adequately for their families and was directly linked to reservation poverty.

During the early reservation period, some Indigenous men worked for federal agents as freight haulers, police officers, and laborers. Indigenous women sometimes sold pottery, beadwork, baskets, or other small items. Income from these sources was small. Government policy largely confined Indigenous people to their reservations, so they were unable to sell their labor for wages off the reservations. Federal Indian policy, most notably the General Allotment Act (1887), reduced the Indigenous land base and subdivided the land among many heirs so that productive use of reservation lands became nearly impossible. High unemployment rates caused a gradual loosening of federal policies of confinement to reservations, and by the early twentieth century, Indigenous people commonly worked in off-reservation jobs such as laborers on farms and ranches and in mines. The 1930 census indicated that 80 percent of Indigenous men were working for wages, mostly in agricultural jobs. Most of this work was unskilled, seasonal, and off-reservation.

The 1930s

In the 1930s, government policies sought to address the problem of high unemployment and poor economic opportunity on the reservations. A 1928 study, The Problem of Indian Administration, commonly known as the Meriam Report, criticized federal Indian policy that intentionally removed Indigenous control over lands and resources and contributed to the widespread poverty and unemployment that characterized reservations. Partly in response to this study, the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934. This was intended to enable tribes to consolidate severely checkerboarded reservation lands, take out low-interest loans to establish economic ventures on reservations, and encourage farming and ranching opportunities on reservations. The Great Depression prevented significant business development on reservations; however, a fair number of Indigenous people benefited from various New Deal programs, particularly the Indian Emergency Conservation Work (later renamed the Indian Division of the Civilian Conservation Corps), which employed and trained more than 85,000 Indigenous people in nine years. During the same period, the Bureau of Indian Affairs organized a division to place Indigenous people in off-reservation jobs.

Changes in the Mid- and Late-twentieth Century

Thousands of Indigenous peoples joined the wage labor force during World War II (1939-1945). Many Indigenous men and women joined the armed services or moved to urban areas to work in war industries. After the war, many Indigenous people remained in urban centers, while those who returned to reservations began to focus on reservation economic development and employment. Reservations remained poor and unemployment high, however. Few jobs came to the reservations, tribes had difficulty securing loans, reservation laws made business investments difficult, and many reservations were distant from markets. Additionally, off-reservation seasonal farming jobs became scarce with increasing technology. As a result, large-scale Indigenous urban migration continued after World War II and was encouraged by the federal policy of the 1950s known as relocation. Through the Native American relocation program, Indigenous peoples were removed to urban areas where jobs could be found. They received job training and housing assistance. The lack of any meaningful jobs on reservations, coupled with federal policy, contributed to unprecedented Indigenous migration to urban areas from 1950 to 1980. By the 1980 census, more than half the Indigenous population resided in urban areas. Indigenous people continued to move to cities because of poor economic opportunities on reservations. Urban Indians generally experience higher employment rates and per capita incomes than those who live on reservations, but they remain low-income households.

The federal government abandoned relocation programs in the late 1960s and turned its attention to revitalizing reservation economies. Concurrently, tribal governments were strengthened, and tribes began pursuing economic development initiatives independent of the federal government. Success was mixed, and reservations continued to experience high unemployment and poverty rates.

During the 1980s, some tribal governments attracted businesses and increased employment opportunities, but overall, success was limited. Indian gaming, sometimes referred to as “the new buffalo,” was being explored by many tribes as both a source of income and as a way to provide jobs. Native American casinos brought jobs to many reservations, but these tend to be low-wage service positions such as cashiers and servers. Tribal governments look to gaming as a way to strengthen reservation infrastructures and improve the lives of the people while they search for other means to address the dual need for employment and real economic development on the reservations.

According to the 1990 census, 62 percent of Indigenous people sixteen years and older were in the labor force (69 percent of the males and 55 percent of the females). Many of the jobs held, however, were seasonal or part-time. A larger number of Native Americans than the total population were employed in service jobs: farming, fishing, forestry, construction, or manufacturing. Compared with the total population, fewer Indigenous people were employed in managerial or professional specialty occupations. In 1990, the median income of Indigenous workers was considerably less than that of the total population, and 31 percent of Indigenous Americans were living below the poverty level, compared with 10 percent of all American families.

Twenty-first-Century Labor Force Participation

In the twenty-first century, many barriers to success continued to exist for Indigenous Americans, including geographic isolation, education disparities, the repercussions of systemic discrimination, health challenges, and more. On most reservations, the largest source of jobs is the government, either tribal or federal. Despite many efforts, reservations have received little economic investment or growth, primarily due to limited resources and capital, a lack of skilled labor, and a remote location. Many reservations experience limited economic activity and few businesses. Unemployment rates on some reservations have been recorded as high as 80 percent.

Participation in the labor force increased as Indigenous people moved off reservations; however, even in urban settings, unemployment remained high. Job opportunities on reservations are scarce. Tribal governments increasingly assert their sovereignty and distance themselves from the federal government in hopes of creating viable economic institutions that will bring job opportunities to reservations. Federal law continues to frustrate these efforts.

Indigenous Americans have consistently experienced higher unemployment rates and lower workforce participation compared to other groups. In 2010, the US Census reported that the unemployment rate for Indigenous peoples was nearly 18 percent, tying with African Americans for the highest rate among all racial groups. Indigenous Americans also had the highest poverty rate of any ethnicity in the 2010 census, with over 26 percent living below the poverty level. The median household income for Indigenous Americans was $38,806, compared to $51,914 for the total population.

In April 2020, the unemployment rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives peaked at 28.6 percent, the highest level since the Great Depression. In the same month, the unemployment rate for the total US population was 14.7 percent. For the first time since 2009, the unemployment rate dipped below the national rate in September 2020. Aside from this outlier, the Indigenous American population's unemployment rate in the early twenty-first century remained much higher than the overall American unemployment rate. Myriad negative life and health factors, such as overcrowded housing conditions, health disparities, and food insecurity, often accompany high unemployment rates. While government and private programs and services have attempted to address these issues over time, systemic discrimination, geographic isolation, barriers to education, and other challenges have contributed to the continued imbalance in unemployment rates in Indigenous communities.

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