<p>Am I allowed to fill out the category regarding being Native American and how to has affected me if I don't know what tribe that our lineage originates from? I know I'm at LEAST 5% which is actually quite a bit and this could help me so much, but the issue is just complicated. So can I still fill in this category? If so, what could I say to get this across without wasting the word count? </p>
<p>Well, 5% in my opinion is not very much blood percentage, and not knowing the tribe of your lineage is a little worrisome. But if it has affected you in some way, I say go for it! You have nothing to lose by trying, so why not? If it will help you greatly, all the more reason to try.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>@TurtlesRWe Actually, only about 10% of Native Americans outside of closed or private tribes contain more than a minuscule 1%, so in regards to that, the 5% I have is a lot. If you’ve ever heard the saying “it only takes a drop” (of N.A. blood) they really do mean very little is required to reap some benefits. Any other circumstance I’d totally agree with you! Haha, but I guess you’re right that it doesn’t hurt to try, so I’ll give it a shot. Thanks! </p>
<p>@azbruin8 I didn’t know that- I learned something new today! I’m a quarter, but even I didn’t write the essay for the NA award. Sadly, it doesn’t affect my life very much. It should, seeing as my great grandfather was a Sioux chief… I dunno lol. </p>
<p>My kids have a full blood Cherokee great grandmother, and their father got money from the US government for his ancestry when we were first married but they decided it would be dishonest and unfair to write the Q4E Native American essay. They didn’t grow up on the res or even in a Native American community. They did a Native American after school program for about 10 years, but the truth is that they weren’t raised within that culture and we believed that it would be unethical to take the opportunity away from someone who really has a Native story to tell about their own life.</p>
<p>That’s just what we decided in our family. </p>
<p>@TurtlesRWe and @nynightowl Both of you raise really good points! While I obviously wasn’t exposed to any reservations, my dad has made a point to embrace his culture and make it known to us. A lot of my beliefs regarding medicine coincide with Native American practices and I’ve actually been to pow wows up in Berkeley before which was pretty cool. Despite this, I feel that it hasn’t exactly impacted my life or paved anything significant for me and is not integrated on a daily basis so I decided to not send it as well. It just wasn’t coming together when it typed it and didn’t seem worth it. Thanks for the input! </p>
<p>@azbruin8, sounds like you made the right decision for you! You can still self identify as Native American on your application and that is a genuine ‘hook’ – it will give your application special consideration at all the QB partner schools. Good luck to you and to @TurtlesRWe in the NCM process! </p>
<p>@nynightowl, ??? What money when you were married? From whom? What “res” or Native American Community? Are you sure it was Cherokee? The words you are typing do not make much sense to me. And blood quantum debates are taken quite seriously by many. They do not figure in determination of ethnicity or even citizenship in all tribes (e.g. Cherokee). @azbruin8, if you feel some native connection, I think you should explore it in an essay. You are certainly not forcing the committee to choose you for their award. The research and thought that will go into writing the essay will deepen your native roots and may lead you on an unexpected path (and will make your dad proud <em>sniff</em>). Do your best, and you may win the award. Your job is to be honest and ethical. The award committee’s job is to make the judgment on the award. Don’t do their job for them.</p>
<p>Cherokee never had any reservations, in their entire history as a tribe, including now. Therefore, many Cherokee did not grow up on a ‘res’, unless their parents married into another tribe, or something. The tribe is in a government-to-government relationship with the US government, so I am very interested in why the US government would ever give money directly to a Cherokee citizen (in addition, even the Cherokee government doesn’t hand out windfalls to the citizens). That’s (almost exactly) like saying the English Government gave some American money when he was married on account of his English ancestry. Not impossible, but I don’t get it. Other tribes are not government-to-government. Perhaps @nynightowl, your kids’ father is enrolled in a different tribe?</p>
<p>ItsJustSchool, we got small checks, maybe $50 at a time from the US government in the early 90’s. It was definitely Cherokee in Kentucky. My ex-husband was enrolled with a southern Cherokee tribe in Kentucky. </p>
<p>I used the term ‘grow up on the res’ to refer to what would be an authentic Native American experience. We now live about 2 miles from the Onondaga Nation called ‘the res’ by everyone including those of us who spend time there and are active in the community. Some of my kids are extremely engaged with the Onondaga including teaching and doing language revitalization, a radio program, lobbying in Albany and belonging to a number of groups ‘on the res’. That’s just what people say, ‘the res’. </p>
<p>The prompt for the award the OP was discussing is no longer available since the deadline has passed. However it said something like, tell us what your life has been like growing up in the Native American environment and how being a person of NA descent has affected you etc etc. Since the OP tried to write the essay and decide it wasn’t working for him, I’m not sure why you’re so invested in pushing him to do it. In any case it was due yesterday.</p>
<p>Your post was uninformed and unnecessarily aggressive. If you don’t understand something it is better to ask than to attack. </p>
<p>@nynightowl, my intent is to understand. I was asking, not attacking. Many non-Indians have impressions that being native includes tapping into slush funds and having lots of reverse-discrimination benefits heaped on, like big checks arriving in the mail every month for doing nothing. I can assure you, the Cherokee do not send out checks any more than any other government does. There is also a lot of mis-information, particularly about the Cherokee Nation, regarding reservations and things that make no sense in the Cherokee context. Promulgating these false stereotypes is not generally helpful, as they can be picked up on and magnified as racial wedges, and tend to homogenize non-Indians’ perception of the Native American distinct cultures into a single monolith. For example, saying kids are Cherokee, but did not grow up on ‘the res’ or a native american community implies that “real Cherokees” grow up on ‘the res,’ or in a Native American community, and dishonors the realities of many Cherokee’s experiences. As far back as John Ross or Elias Boudinot and more recently Ross Swimmer or Wilma Mankiller, the lives of prominent Cherokee and relationship to any conventional wisdom of ‘Indian environment’ are complex and worthy of exploring. The Lakota also have a rich history within the “white” culture, and I do not know enough about them or other Souix tribes to comment whether the OP should or should not get an award.</p>
<p>The OP perhaps should not have written the essay, but I always feel that these opportunities to understand our heritage should not be passed up. Besides, it is not the OP who should decide whether or not he deserves a competitive award. And if he has time to diligently research his background and write the essay, it will be something that binds him more closely to his heritage for his lifetime. That is a good thing. I don’t see where I am ‘invested,’ I simply was encouraging him to get past his hesitation and dig into his roots.</p>
<p>There are 3 federally recognized tribes stemming from the Cherokee- the Cherokee Tribe, The Eastern Band of Cherokee, and The Keetoowah Band. Perhaps your ex-husband was in the Eastern Band of Cherokee?</p>
<p>Why do you think my post was uninformed and unnecessarily aggressive?</p>
<p>@nynightowl & @ItsJustSchool Sorry this post has sorta veered this way. I think nynightowl was just offering their perspective, whether it is 100% accurate or not, it was still helpful to me. While I agree that there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of any opportunities presented for me in this regard, the question itself (no so much a prompt, I wouldn’t say less than 300 words is an “essay”) was asking how being NA has impacted me, but because it’s such a hazy area it was hard to strongly define that within the word constraints. And on side note, I am a female… Not a guy haha. But regardless, the deadline was yesterday! So no need to fret over it now 
</p>
<p>@azbruin8, I do hope you have a chance to explore all parts of your heritage. Good luck with your QB applications!</p>
<p>@azbruin8, I’m sorry about that! I have no idea why I thought you were male - I guess it doesn’t matter. Anyway, you sound like a bright thoughtful young woman, and I’m sure you will do beautifully in the Questbridge process. Best of luck to you! </p>
@azbruin8: How can you “embrace your heritage” if you don’t know which tribal heritage is yours? There’s a huge cultural difference between, say, Cherokee and Navajo, or Seminole and Kahniakenhaka.
@petrichor11 I posted this months ago… And did you even read what I wrote? I said that I was exposed to common methods of practice and beliefs, but that my life never revolved around a reservation? Also, people are in fact able to be open to exploring every aspect of who they are culturally whether they know the exact lineage or not. To add even further, many Native American ideologies (spiritual, medicinal, etc.) are actually similar throughout the various tribes. While they all have their own distinctions I don’t understand why you feel I would need to be DIRECTLY assimilated in order to know who I am. You make it sound as if I’m committing some act of cultural appropriation by being curious about my roots and that I really don’t understand… But okay.
I really don’t know what to think. I’m full blooded Navajo, and I’m a part of the Navajo nation. So, I truly do not know what to make of this.
But, I agree with @ItsJustSchool