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Throughout this century, American Indians have been the poorest of the poor in American society. The seriously disadvantaged economic position of American Indians has many causes. In the early years of this century, American Indians were concentrated in remote regions of the nation, distant from urban centers of economic growth. From about 1890 to 1930, the federal government's so-called "allotment" programs vigorously promoted farming as a means for American Indians to become self-sufficient. Allotment programs typically gave an American Indian family 160 acres for farming or cattlegrazing. However, the farm land allotted to Indian families was often arid and of poor quality. In the Plains, many tribes were former nomadic hunters and had neither the knowledge nor the desire to become farmers. In other places, Indian farming declined because allotment privatized communal agricultural systems, such as irrigation ditches, and this disrupted tradition al farming practices.