Anonymous wrote:I have a neighbor who constantly mentions how her son will have no problem with college admission because he is Native American. Her husband, herself and her child ALL have blond hair and blue eyes. A few times when she has mentioned this someone in the group had looked at her funny or come right and asked how are you Native American. She'll go on that she has a paper from the tribe and they make sure to stay a part of it so they can use it later. They have never lived on a reservation or follow any Native American traditions.
Assuming this is true and she is not nuts, this strikes me as not being the intent for affirmative action to help Native Americans. Do colleges accept stuff like this?
I have a friend whose mother is 100% Lakota Sioux, who married a white guy. My friend's kids hair color ranges from blond to black, I've never really noticed eye color. Neither she nor the kids have ever lived on a reservation but my friend's mother is very involved politically in Native American affairs, they have relatives on reservations, my friend's mom and uncles were forced to attend boarding schools (which is the basis of my friend's mom's intense Catholicism). Their tribe allows enrollment up to 1/8 Native blood, although the benefits of enrollment diminish as the blood fraction does.
Also, every tribe determines enrollment criteria. Although many tribes use blood quantum, that measure originated with whites just like white measurements of blackness did. Also, blood quantum poses complicated problems; I know people whose origins involve several tribes and who to look at are full-blood native but not eligible to belong to any tribe.