Gabe Galanda: Academia won't tackle tribal disenrollment issues

Consider this New York Times article, “What happens when the poor receive a stipend?,” about the research findings of Jane Costello, an epidemiologist at Duke University Medical School.

For the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Dr. Costello concluded that per capitas–which she insightfully refers to as income “supplements” or “stipends”–seemingly helped Cherokee families: “Minor crimes committed by Cherokee youth declined. On-time high school graduation rates improved…”

But what Dr. Costello apparently failed to evaluate is whether tribal per capitas/income supplements contributed to the disenrollment of several hundred Eastern Cherokees.

Indeed, nobody in academia has to my knowledge ever seriously looked at the societal impacts of, and the correlation between, tribal per capita distributions and mass disenrollment.