NA URMs, the thought of sending child to any boarding school for Uni admit advantage, smh!

Applying to College
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I was just reading some threads about boarding schools, pros and cons, money, admit rates to selective colleges and so on. Once again, looking around on these thread demonstrates the differences between upbringings. The last Native American Boarding School/Residential School in my region closed in the 1990s (not so long ago).

Both my parents, grandparents and great grandparents attended with such terrible happenings, it’s really a miracle any of us turned out normal! Boarding Schools (BS), at least in my cultural group, is synonymous with bad words! One parent was kidnapped along with others, in a plane and taken to a boarding school. Needless to say, it wasn’t to prepare them for a brighter future. The idea of sending my children to BS for an opportunity and a better chance at a selective school is such a new thought, it’s really mind-boggling!

I can just imagine the responses from my relatives if I should suggest sending my children of to one of these schools! The outcry would be unbelievable, trust me on that score, and they would question my sanity! Yet this seems so normal across many cultures in America. No one would blink twice at an opportunity to send their kids to these feeder boarding schools. Wow, just wow! If boarding school gives some students a boost and no one complains, why do people complain or get salty about a NA URM boost? Not a level playing field? Scout that idea!

I am fast, changing my mind that this URM status is ‘unearned’ or “unfair”. Should a NA student with the best grades possible given his/her circumstances that makes him/her competitive for select schools feel guilty about their URM boost?

NA URMs are often looked at in askance as to "how did you get here or are you really qualified to be here?
I say that if that comes up, NAs should push back and ask if they themselves had a elite BS background, $$, decent tutoring for tests, hired admission consultants, legacy background, college educated parents who have been through ‘the application grind’ a time or two or any combination of these advantages?

NA URMs, never feel ‘lesser’ that, if not for that ‘boost,’ you wouldn’t be there! The school has given you that URM status which been earned by the countless deaths and abuses your parents and ancestors have suffered and the inter-generational traumas on your society as a result.

The kind of boarding schools talked about on these threads are a world away from what NAs know of boarding schools. NA URMs who are historically, culturally, emotionally connected to such history and have “walked in the moccasins”, Go ahead and PROUDLY click that URM Status BUTTON.

We need to preserve our heritage, culture, lands, and getting educated at good schools is a step in the right direction! Who cares if the Asians have been here for a few generations! We’ve been here for millenia! If these schools have written in their charters to preserve a place or have an admissions boost for Native Americans so as to make reparations for the defrauding of our land, culture and historical abuses, why is it wrong?
If anyone has a priority space in these schools it should be for those who have bled and died for our society. So what if you’ve been here for a 4 generations! If you start to open up admissions files on Native Americans and decry their admissions to Harvard or other elite schools and penalize them, this society is then doubly responsible for allowing a group of foreigners to steal opportunity from us again. We were outnumbered before, and then now again. I pray that it doesn’t happen again. I am sure that the numbers of those NA applicants will be at the forefront of this new ORM Lawsuit. I hope someone or a native american lawyer will fight for us! It’s sad really.

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The only time I generally see people looking askance at using NA status as a boost is when kids who don’t have any cultural connection to their tribe try to take advantage of the slight edge given URMs. The “I just took a DNA test and found out I’m 6% NA. Can I apply for NA scholarship?” threads are particularly galling.

One of my kids is the bio granddaughter of a woman adopted out of her tribe at a time when there were not yet protections against such adoptions. My child is interested in exploring her heritage but she would never try to claim URM status. She’s grown up as Western European American as they come.

I can understand why your older relatives are fearful of boarding schools. They were once used to strip NA’s of their “Indian-ness.” I agree with you that NA’s deserve a leg up in college admissions. Sadly, many NA’s, particularly those who have grown up on reservations, have been the victims of inferior, underfunded schools, making it hard for them to get the kind of high school education necessary for success at top colleges.

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That is true, however, if there is a way to connect her to her tribe and then explain the historical “disconnectedness” through adoptions and such, is important too! Many tribes care for their "lost’ people too. If she knows the name of her tribe, reservation, knows her family name, find records that show/tie her to the tribe and then what transpired, it is impportant. The Sixties Scoop here in Canada was a terrible time for tribes and there were so many adoptions and kids that ended up ‘missing’ and there are now different initiatives to help reconnect people to their heritage. Don’t lose hope. There has to be a paper trail somewhere.

I am in research and have a real interest in Indigenous health issues/family-heritage disconnectedness and its impacts. When the children were scooped, it left scars on those reservations as well. It’s a wrong that needs to be righted somehow. This needs for people working together for a solution. I dream of a world that allows that to happen. I would like to work with DNA testing/ Bone testing for markers of ‘regionalism’, That could help narrow things down for people to find/return to their heritage. It would be nice to have a Native American Adoption database for each decade set up with collaborative agencies to further such work. “I have a Dream” too.

Thank you for your supportive thoughts!

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Unfortunately there’s no paper trail. She was one of the “scooped” kids and although she knows she’s NA doesn’t have any information on her tribe other than that she was told by her adoptive parents that she was Lakota. We adopted our daughter, who because there was no official record of her gmother’s membership, didn’t fall under the ICWA. I’d love to see such a database.

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That is too bad! The Lakota are a very large people group but that still narrows it down to a region and specific people group.
With technology being the way it is now, I wonder how hard it would be create a website for NAs to input their data while anonymously looking for their children/relatives? They could put in the Native American Nation, Region, and if they have it, the date, time, sex of the birth, and connect any match able information between searching families, much like what adoption agencies have for adoptees looking for their parents. There is so much secrecy involved with adoption but there has to be birth records at least. There have been miracles in this arena the last few decades, so I am hopeful. Our extended family had one child who ended up in New Zealand and she looked and found us! We had a huge welcome and repatriation ceremony for her and her children; it was wonderful. Have you had her do a DNA match? Something may turn up. I would give it a try. I am hopeful of someone loving my idea and helping me pursue it! I just have the dream but not a lot of know-how in getting things going. Any suggestions would be appreciated.