@Dolemite I think it’s a little insulting to imply that marking this on the app is a magic ticket and that’s why the OP is asking. people with native ancestry often are torn about whether to express it. They want to acknowledge their ancestry, but they are afraid of being derided as being not quite native enough or too native or just not good enough in general. Can’t you feel that in the OP’s question?
OP is trying to make the right decision.
It’s not a matter of “tribal affiliation documents”. I would be amazined if a school asked for tribal documents at this point. @ucbalumnus . But they ought to check just to be sure. That seems very behind the times, if they do. It’s a matter of – is some authority going to tell me that this part of my history isn’t good enough, isn’t pure enough, isn’t whatever enough.
As of 2010, if you identify as a group, finally according to the US government, you no longer have to hide that, documentation or not.
Remember: many tribes were destroyed by disease and through pogroms and so many people of native descent do not and cannot have a tribal affiliation. It’s a problem. For many people, their histories were destroyed so completely and, Catch 22, because they don’t have that “documentation” their ancestry is no longer valid, supposedly.
And it is diverse by the nature of the fact that they have to live this every day. In the gray zone.
Only Native Americans have to deal with this. It’s unique. You have this ancestry and you can’t acknowledge it publicly, without someone leaping on you, because somehow it’s seen as an unfair advantage, even though your ancestors were destroyed.