[Paper] Tallest in the World: Native Americans of the Great Plains in the Nineteenth Century - 2001

We use the methodology of anthropometric history to investigate the nutritional status of equestrian nomads who lived on the Great Plains during the middle of the nineteenth century, a group for whom traditional measures of economic performance are unavailable. Historians have frequently portrayed Native Americans as merely unfortunate victims of European disease and aggression, with lives in disarray following the arrival of Columbus and other explorers, conquerors, and settlers. While much decimation occurred (Russell Thornton, 1987, 1997), the data we analyze show that some Native Americans were remarkably ingenious, adaptive, and successful in the face of exceptional demographic stress. Using height data originally collected by Franz Boas, we show that the Plains nomads were tallest in the world during the mid-nineteenth century, a result confirmed in travelers’ accounts and by the skeletal record. The analysis provides a useful mirror for understanding determinants of health in general.

https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.91.1.287

Full Paper on SciHub (better formatting) / https://web.archive.org/web/20081216230811id_/http://eh.net/XIIICongress/cd/papers/70PrinceSteckel378.pdf