A quarter of the US heartland has reverted to frontier status

Evidence

Since the 1920s, a great span of the heartland has been drastically declining in human population. By 1990, 133 counties, constituting about a quarter of the United States, had reverted to “frontier” status, with fewer than two people per square mile. By 1999, 62 percent of Montana was frontier status. Forty percent of the U.S. land mass is home to only 1 percent of the population. Many of these areas are in significant economic decline. Over one-quarter of loans to farmers in Nebraska and the Dakotas are delinquent. All of this is combined with some additional facts, like the average age of a farmer (elderly), high poverty levels, and other indicators like low levels of construction in the region. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 781

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The 1887 General Allotment Act cut reservation lands by two-thirds — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 724; The Great Plains cattle and monoculture economy is failing — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 780