On Tuesday, April 1, at 2 PM in 104 Lawrence Hall, Robert Gillezeau will present, “Railroads, Market Access, and Indigenous Land Dispossession.” This talk will explore how railway construction accelerated the displacement and dispossession of Indigenous nations across North America. Using spatial data on land cessions up to 1894, Gillezeau will examine how increased market access, driven by rail expansion, led to more land losses among Indigenous peoples. He will also discuss how these disruptions contributed to greater assimilation with settler populations, changes in physical stature, and long-term income effects. This presentation provides a nuanced view of the complex consequences of colonization, revealing how some nations faced harsher impacts while others benefited from higher-quality reserves.
Robert Gillezeau is an Assistant Professor of Economic Analysis and Policy at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. His is an affiliated scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality, a research fellow at the Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and a J-PAL invited researcher. His research is primarily focused on the economic history of Indigenous peoples and state discrimination.
This talk is part of the Inequality and Institutions Series at the Center for Governance and Markets.