Kellogg Center Hosts Workshop on Indigenous Economics

The Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics will host a workshop on Indigenous Economics on Thursday, August 14, 2025, in the Lury and Barbara Goodall Room in the Newman Library.

Indigenous peoples had lived in the Americas and developed complex and diverse economic systems for thousands of years before Europeans arrived and began to establish colonies. The interaction of indigenous and colonial economic institutions fundamentally altered conditions for both the peoples that were already here and the new nations that would form. Today, people of Indigenous descent are amongst the poorest in the United States and Canada. Analyzing the role of Federal laws in the evolution of the economic conditions of Indigenous peoples is critical when formulating policies to improve their economic status both on and off of reservations. Furthermore, the economic growth, institutional formation, and distribution of income in North American today is a function of what was here in 1492. A true understanding of American economic development requires clarifying the connections between its past and present.

This workshop will provide a forum for scholars to explore emerging research in indigenous economics, considered from an interdisciplinary perspective.

1. Speakers

Ann Carlos is a Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Cliometric Society. Her work has studied the impact of trade on indigenous peoples in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She, along with co-author Frank Lewis, has written extensively on the fur trade between Native Americans and Europeans. They were awarded the Harry Johnson Prize for the Best Paper in the Canadian Journal of Economics and The Library Company Philadelphia Award for the Best Paper in Early American Economic History. She has served as co-editor of the Journal of Economic History and president of Economic History Association.

Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl is a Professor and The Nanette & Thomas Watjen 1976 Chair in Economics and Business at the Virginia Military Institute and a non-resident visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Her research focuses on the economics of institutions, American Indian economic development, law and economics, post-socialist economies and politics, and economic history. She is the current President of the Association for Economic Research of/by/for/with Indigenous Peoples (AERIP) and Consulting Editor for the European Journal of Law and Economics.

Donn Feir is a Professor of Economics at the University of Victoria, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a fellow at the Global Labor Organization. Their research focuses on how historical and modern policies and events have shaped modern Indigenous experiences. They are interested in public policy, economic history, and how to create institutional environments that foster economic opportunity and justice.  The article “Indian Residential Schools: Height, and Body Mass Post-1930,” written jointly with M. Chris Auld, won the Johnson Prize for the Best Paper in the Canadian Journal of Economics.

Dustin Frye is an Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin Madison and a Research Economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on the historic and contemporary consequences of Federal Indian Policy with an emphasis on property rights and governance. His work on Native American Households During the Assimilation Era has been funded by the National Science Foundation.

Melinda Miller is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Core Faculty member of the Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Virginia Tech. She specializes in economics history, with a focus on the origins and persistence of American racial inequality and role of federal policy in shaping inequality.

2. Workshop Schedule

9:15-9:30. Gathering and Refreshments

9:30-9:45. Welcoming Remarks: Michael Moehler

9:45-10:45. Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl “Empowering Native Communities Through Financial Inclusion: The Case of Native CDFIs”

10:45-11:00. Coffee Break 

11:00-12:00. Dustin Frye: “The Effect of Land Allotment on Native American Households During the Allotment Era”

12:00-2:00. Lunch Break

2:00-3:00. Ann Carlos: “Trade in Pre-Contact Indigenous North America 1000-1500”

3:00-3:15. Coffee Break

3:15-4:15. Donn Feir: “American Indian Wealth and Health in the Early 20th Century”

4:15-4:30. Coffee Break

4:30-5:30. Melinda Miller: “A New Institutional History of Allotment: Evidence from the Pine Ridge Reservation”

5:30-5:45. Concluding Remarks

6:30. Dinner (on invitation)

3. Attendance and Format

The workshop is open to the public. All faculty, students, and members of the public are cordially invited to attend.

During the workshop, talks will follow the traditional economics format of questions interspersed through each talk.

For more information about this workshop, please contact Melinda Miller (millermc@nullvt.edu).

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact ppe@nullvt.edu at least ten business days before the event.