ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION OF NAVAJO RESERVATIONS

Dr. D'Lynn Waldron was the pro bono consultant on this investigation of the economic abuses in the Bureau Indian Affairs trading post system on the Native American reservations.
The research design Dr. Waldron provided was based on her doctoral dissertation "The Problems of Traditional Societies In Economic Transition", and in particular the economic abuse to be found all over the world when an isolated store is both the sole supplier of the necessities of life and also the sole purchaser of the local products.
Dr. Waldron termed it The Figure Syndrome when a monopolist/monopsonist stands between an isolated people and the wider market, so that everything they buy and sell must be done through that one trader's store.
On the reservations, the trading post owners controlled the mail and took the government payments sent to the Native Americans to hold against supposed debts of these customers, that were in account books kept by the store owner.

D'Lynn Waldron, PhD lynn@dlynnwaldron.com BACK TO AUTHOR