I am currently a high school junior. I’m 5/8ths native South American, and as such, am also Hispanic.
On applications that include Native American instead of American Indian, am I allowed to mark Native American? As far as I know, Native American only means North American, not the other Americas. I also do not have much proof of my race besides the fact that both of my parents are from countries with large populations of natives.
Thanks.
My guess is that you are Hispanic and you are not Native American. However, you should probably ask the schools.
It is my understanding to mark Native American you must be affiliated with a Tribe either directly or parent/grand-parent. I believe all the Federally recognized tribes are in North America.
Any way marking Native American on your admissions documents isn’t some magical ticket. Colleges are looking for diversity so a Native American student that is active in his/her tribe and can bring that experience to college is desirable. Someone that has Native American ancestry but grew up in the suburbs of a major city and has no contact with their ancestral tribe isn’t desirable from a diversity standpoint.
Different schools may have different requirements with respect to tribal affiliation documentation. Check each school to be sure.
There can also be variation in whether those with origins in the native peoples of the Americas outside of the US are included (e.g. those of the First Nations in Canada).
There are different scholarships for Native Americans and they basically require direct Tribal registration or Registration by a parent or grandparent. They want to see the Tribal registration card and any birth certificates to prove lineage.
I don’t have affiliation with any specific tribe, but with the group, the Quechua, in general. Most of the influence I receive from them is the food, the music, and customs. I know a tiny bit of the language as well. I would have known more as well, if my great grandparents weren’t so ashamed of their culture when they moved from their villages to more urban areas. My grandmother is the last fluent speaker alive in my family, although my parents know some as well.
@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.
@ucbalumnus is correct. Additionally, some schools consider Ethnicity in the application process and some don’t. You can see that in the Common Data Set published by each school. For example: http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1537
Good luck!
I’m not trying to be insulting to anyone but just saying that schools are interested in diversity for a reason and just being able to check a box isn’t enough. My mother is Native American so I’m 1/2 by blood but never really had much tribal contact. My D brought up during the college admissions process if she should mark NA but I advised not to because she has absolutely no tribal contact. Now her mother is from South America, so my D was raised bi-lingual and has spent quite a bit of time in South America during the summers. She marked Hispanic and had life experiences to talk about in her applications.
So my point is not to get hung up on checking a box. Think about what you are bringing to the conversation. I did mention the scholarship thing because they do require documentation.
I agree with @Dolemite that it’s not about checking a box, but each person owns their ethnicity and should choose to embrace/exhibit it as they see fit.
I’m a tiny fraction Native American and I’m not active in my tribes. I do, however, have my Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) and maintain an interest in Native American history and issues. When asked, I proudly check all the boxes that apply to my ethnic background without hesitation.
It’s yours, you get to choose how and when to use it. Good luck!
Here is an example where some tribal documentation is required of either the student or a direct ancestor:
https://policy.umn.edu/morris/amindianwaiver
Obviously, a student can check whatever box(es) s/he wants. But some schools may view it differently based on whether there is tribal documentation.
@ucbalumnus Unfortunately there is no way for me to do this, since the Native American group my family is from is not federally recognized, as the Quechua are from South America.
Thank you for the information.
@Dolemite ideally i think this is what colleges want (people to bring the diversity to campus not just mark a checkbox) but there was this recent buzzfeed video about this girl who got into yale i believe, and she read the notes the admissions people wrote about her application a few years after she had applied. one of the notes said that it would be a good thing to have someone from her town/school (because apparently that town had low income/minorities). yet while her high school was indeed very low income and had many minorities, she was white. and yale hadn’t admitted anybody else from that school, and i think later they did admit another student from there, and again, they were white. even though the white people weren’t representative of the supposed “diversity” that someone from that school supposedly had, the fact that she simply went to that school was enough for them to claim “diversity”
the point im trying to make is that even though perhaps OP isn’t really active in any tribe the way the US thinks native americans should be represented (because you can still have culture and diversity even if you don’t have some official paperwork to tell you you are), the school might not care so much about all the nitty gritty when they might just be content with a check mark.
(though this is in no way saying that just filling in a check mark like hometown or ethnicity is going to get you into yale or is going to always count as diversity, this was just one case. that girl obviously had a bunch of other great qualities to get admitted but that comment that officers wrote in her application was very telling)
i dont really see why somebody can’t say they’re native american for race when that’s what they are. just because they don’t have all that paperwork (that is just a construct the U.S. made) it shouldn’t mean they’re not native. that is a very US-centric way of thinking, just because one government gives you a piece of paper, that shouldn’t invalidate your culture. that is completely absurd.
what else would OP put for the race question? white? other? he’s not. his ancestry is indigenous to south america. of course he will put down latino/hispanic for the ethnicity question though.
or maybe he can put other and if it gives him the option to write what he is specifically
honestly i would just put down native american and if they ask then just clarify that he’s from south america. it’s not out of the ordinary or anything since most all of latin america was colonized at some point and we still have a lot of the indigenous culture there.
@otoribashi I know of the story you are referencing about a young lady from the public schools of Minneapolis. I believe she mentioned a remark that they wanted someone from the Minneapolis public school system. I don’t think that means they needed someone A-A or Latino or even NA. Even though she was white with highly educated parents she still had diversity value based on geography and for attending an inner city public high school with demographics different than many suburban or prep schools that make up a large number of Yale students. She had life experiences different from many of the typical admits - plus apparently she was a fantastic writer.
@dolemite yeah that’s the one. though why wouldn’t they admit someone who was a minority or low income, who has actually lived through those diverse experiences rather than just someone who saw them from afar as a second source? yes her experience is more diverse than those who have a more suburban/prep school background but why not instead admit someone who actually lived through those diverse experiences and wasn’t just a witness to her classmates living through them? (though this is highly rhetorical cuz as you said she was a great applicant in other ways, and we don’t even know if any of her classmates applied to yale that weren’t white/wealthy)
Some schools may have different criteria or definition; check each school to be sure.
For example, the California State University system lists suboptions of specific tribes or groups under “American Indian or Alaska Native”, one of which is “Latin American Indian”. (However, the California State University system does not consider ethnicity in admissions, and all except one campus is purely GPA and SAT/ACT based for admissions, and it offers no financial aid for non-California residents.)
https://www.calstate.edu/sas/documents/applicationform-undergraduate.pdf
@otoribashi I think you answered your own question. That year maybe there wasn’t anyone else Yale worthy from Minneapolis or she was the best of the very few.
Maybe choose “other” and put “Quechua”