<p>It is mockery of cultural diversity and affirmative action for a school not to enquire about a student's background. Real diversity will help colleges to offer a better education, but to let anyone just check the box on the application will encourage lying. Do these schools really want a diverse academic environment, or do they just want figures that make them look diverse.</p>
<p>I have not read this whole thread. But I know that at Harvard there are scholarships that are reserved specifically for NAs/Am-Inds. If none applies or is admitted, the monies just do not get used. Dartmouth was founded specifically to educate NAs. So it has a mission to do so aside from its more recent wish to increase diversity.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, the definition of NA/Am-Ind status was the same as for African-American, eg. 1/32 blood. When I was a grad student, a student who got the NA scholarship turned out, to everyone's surprise, to look more Scandinavian than NA, but she did have the requisite geneaological proof. </p>
<p>As for recruiting on reservations, let's remember what happened to the bright but underprepared Am-Ind at Wesleyan, as per The Gatekeepers. Wesleyan did him no favor by admitting him. He might have succeeded had he been given extensive support, which apparently he was not. We do not know.</p>
<p>I recommend watching Smoke Signals by Sherman Alexie, a Harvard-educated Am-Ind film-maker. He has a hilarious exchange between two Am-Inds. First guy scoffs as second guy for watching Dances With Wolves 200 times. Second guy says: "How else would I know how to behave like and Indian?"</p>
<p>The biography available at Alexie's website, FallsApart Productions, does not mention Harvard, although the writer did graduate from WSU and also attended Gonzaga (a fine Jesuit university in Spokane, WA). One of my good friends was a classmate of Alexie's in several poetry and writing courses at Wazoo, and I once had the priviledge of taking a group of students to attend a Young Indian Writers' Conference where he was the keynote speaker. </p>
<p>I second the recommendation for Smoke Signals, and I even more enthusiastically recommend the collection of short stories on which it is loosely based, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. I was teaching in a small, rural "farmtown" school that also served a reservation community when I read the book, and all the way through it, I kept thinking, "I know all of these people!" </p>
<p>To continue this discussion, yes, many PNW Indian communities have recently experienced relative prosperity due to a combination of profitable casinos, effective natural resource management, and some long-overdue settlements of claims based on treaties and executive order agreements dating from the 19th century.....and high school graduation rates, access to health care, and employment opportunities are slowly improving. But I cannot think of a SINGLE Indian student that graduated from my former school (and that was probably a hundred out of the 180-200 to start in the 7th grade there) in the six years I was there that went on to complete a 4-year degree. So yes, I believe we should continue to make every effort to mitigate "Two+ Centuries of Dishonor," to paraphrase Helen Hunt Jackson. Legal discrimination may be behind us, but its foundation of prejudice is still standing strong. </p>
<p>One illustrative incident from my years in that school stands out in my mind. It was near the end of the year, and I went to the principal to express my concern about five students who clearly had no hope of passing a required course. His response? "Oh, don't worry about it......the tribe will pay for summer school." I hadn't mentioned the students by name, and he automatically assumed that if they were failing, they must be Indian kids (they weren't!). Now that is just one small incident, but that kind of attitude was not rare, and that was not many years ago at all.</p>
<p>It is indeed sad to think that people who have no legitimate claim to tribal membership or afiliation might try to gain an unfair advantage by making a false claim. But I would be willing to let a few slip by if it also meant that a few of the wonderful Indian young people I knew would have a shot at a quality education and the support they would need to make the most of it.</p>
<p>Just a few final thoughts--I don't mean to sound like I'm selling these students short to suggest they would need support; it was a tiny rural district with 210-230 students in K-12; most CC readers probably have no idea how limited the resources were and how stretched the teachers were (and how much support MOST of the school's graduates would need in a challenging university program). We were always thrilled to have a couple of our top students each year accepted to Gonzaga. A few went to WSU, maybe one to UW, and a few more to the regional state U, but the majority floated along in community college for a year or less before going to work.</p>
<p>And yes, I used the word Indian.....that's how they referred to themselves, rather than Native American (not to imply any objection to that term either).</p>
<p>I agree and think that the schools should reach out to native Americans, and I think it is okay to let a few slip by to if that is what it takes.</p>
<p>Sorry about the inaccuracy (and the typo). I believe that in the East Coast, the original inhabitants are called Native Americans. Starting in the Midwest, they are called (and call themselves) Indians--which is why I tried to include both. </p>
<p>In the case of Harvard, there is no attempt to define NA/Am-Ind culturally because that is not the way the scholarships were set up. That is probably true, too, of Dartmouth.</p>
<p>But perhaps the larger issue which I tried to raise by mentioning Smoke Signals is that cultural authenticity is a chimera. What the two Indians in the film share is a culture of poverty and limited expectations. They do not know how to "act Indian" and have to rely on Hollywood movies to provide the stereotypes (I remember Pauline Kael's verdict on Dances with Wolves: Kevin Costner has feathers on his head and feathers in his brain.") American Indians, if admitted to college, should not bear the burden of representing their "culture."</p>
<p>I think government and colleges are slowly refocusing their recruiting efforts to target disadvantaged socioeconomic groups rather than minorities per se.</p>
<p>DRJ, you are right; but to my recollection, Harvard (and I suspect other colleges with ancient lineages) is full of quirky scholarships (for residents of xyz or descendents of xyz) most of whom go to whites. the scholarship for Native Americans are in that category. The terms would have to be rewritten to open them up to non-NAs.</p>
<p>But that type of socioeconomic targeting alone would not really help my former students, many of whom appear to be solidly in the middle class. That (very recently acquired ) status, though, does not negate the effects of generations of abject destitution. Marite is right on the money in her observations about the culture of poverty and how that contributes to what outsiders see as a spendthrift lifestyle, higher than average levels of substance abuse, heartbreakingly high infant and child mortality rates, etc.....I'm not an expert, but I do know this one reservation and its history very well. Most of the small towns there would still be accurately characterized as communities in crisis; however, that description covers up the potential that is there. I think it is a reasonable assumption that such a legacy is shared by many of the children and even grandchildren of off-reservation Indians as well, and thanks to the termination policy of the fifties, there are a surprising number who live in cities. And I believe it is reasonable and right for good socially-responsible universities and colleges to target the youth of these families in their recruiting efforts.</p>
<p>ReneeV,</p>
<p>I understand what you are saying and I don't disagree, but life can be quirky just like those Ivy League scholarships that Marite points out. My great-grandmother was a full-blood Indian from Oklahoma who married a Englishman and who qualified for tribal benefits and lands during her lifetime, as did her daughter (my mother). Our sons could undoubtedly qualify as Native American/Indian but we have never checked that box. Instead, we self-identify as Caucasian and we don't qualify for financial aid. I think society is better off if those who need assistance can get it, and we generally do that more effectively by targeting disadvantaged socioeconomic groups than by focusing on race, ethnicity, or religion.</p>
<p>DRJ:</p>
<p>I agree with you that, ideally, the money should go to those who really need it (which is why S did not apply for merit money). For Harvard and Dartmouth, it's more a case of scholarship money chasing after recipients rather than applicants chasing after money. Of course, there needs to be a reasonable chance that, if admitted, they'll do well. Automatically, that excludes about 99.99% rather than 90% of would-be applicants.</p>
<p>Marite,</p>
<p>There are lots of scholarships out there, many of which have specific and fascinating requirements. One of the first things we did in researching colleges with our oldest son was to look at the unusual scholarships available to applicants. I respect the requirements made by grantors who fund scholarships and I think it's interesting to learn what motivated them to make their requirements, especially when the scholarship has been around awhile such as those at Harvard and its sister schools.</p>
<p>Stop trying to work the angles - be who you are</p>
<p>I've always found interesting the number of people who, in the course of discussing native americans, claim to have some "indian blood". If it were always true, I'd venture to guess that a good 75% of white Americans have NA ancestry and qualify for membership in one tribe or another. Many of the same people would rather cut out their own tongues than admit to having African American Ancestry even if it would give them an edge in college admissions.:rolleyes:</p>
<p>Don't know how to put a link here but if you google "harvard crimson" "blood and personal choice" you will get an interesting article. No one likes to think that a spot meant for a disadvantaged student is filled by a child of privilege.</p>
<p>This thread is neat. I was raised in, and currently live in TN. I grew up with a very fair amount of people who obviously had Native American ancestry, because the history of the state of Tn lends itself to that.
When I say obviously, I mean it was obvious that their Native American ancestry was not very far removed. </p>
<p>No one, when I was a youngster in high school, ever thought of claiming that for University admissions. Haven't a clue why. I did have some friends who wrote about it on University applications, but never claimed it on the addy forms in no small part because they figured it would be unfair to people with more than (approx.) 40% Native American ancestry.
Personally, I was not on the fast track to Vandy as a youngster, but I though I would share my past observations on this.</p>
<p>When I applied to University for the first ever time from Community College, I claimed myself as being Latin American because my late mother was...Latin American. And, I look very Colombian and own that because it is what I am. I have always claimed myself as Colombian since I was a youngster.
My father was of Bavarian Jewish extraction and my last name reflects that very well. Long story short, for the University I used to go to, I was given a scholarship on the basis of my last name.
I called the scholarship office and explained that even though my father was of Bavarian Jewish extraction, that I was personally not Jewish (I am a Quaker) nor can I even speak German for diddly squat. The office told me, over the phone, that I was the only person who "filled the gap" for the scholarship because they hadn't anyone close to filling it and did not want to have to tell the people backing the scholarship that they could not find anyone. I asked to see if I could maybe swap scholarships or get work study or something and was told that if I refused my scholarship (a little one, mind you) that I would never be allowed to think of applying for any other ones. So I kept it, you know?
Just goes to show you. I was actually given a scholarship on the basis of nothing more than my grades and LAST NAME!</p>