How Little Is Enough?

lookingforward
Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:56:02 +0000

You can put down anything you want. How an individual college then views your background depends on its policies. Last time I dug into this, colleges in areas with large NA populations (esp the midwest), were more concerned that you have a tribal enrollment number before they would consider you NA. There’s space for this id on the CA now. (There are tribes that would consider 1/8 sufficient, even 1/16. But for enrollment, usually you would also have to prove your grandmother’s legtimate and registered status as a member. That’s more complicated.)

Even if a school takes your background on your word, they usually expect to see some affiliation with the culture or some continued interest- something that makes this identity real to you, personally. One option is to use your new enthusiasm to dig into family history and somewhere (even in Addl Info) write a short bit about the research and some experiences.