Are you a member of a federally recognised tribe? If you are not, then you will not qualify for many of the scholarships for Native Americans. But some will work for you. Regardless, here are some resources for you:

If you have more than 1/4 Native American blood, you should be eligible for Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) scholarships. Again, if you are a member of a federally recognised tribe.

You can apply for these scholarships through your tribe, home agency, or area office of Indian Education. Check with your local BIA office for applications, eligibility and deadlines. The Bureau of Indian Affairs can also be reached at 1-800-332-9186.

Another good source of financial aid is your tribe. Some tribes offer scholarships to their members, although these are usually fairly small. And especially if you do not qualify for a BIA scholarship, your tribe itself may award a tribal scholarship. You’ll need to contact the tribe directly.

The Indian Health Service (IHS) has a scholarship and a loan repayment program. If you major in the health professions, accounting or engineering, they’ll give you full tuition and fees, books, uniforms, equipment, travel, insurance, national board exams, travel for clinical training, and a stipend for students. Call 1-301-443-6197, Indian Health Service, Scholarship Program.

Many colleges offer free tuition, room and board to Native American students, so contact the schools you think you’re interested in directly. Make sure that, as part of your search, you check with your own state university, as they would be likely to offer such a thing.

I’m sure there are others, but these are the ones I know of. Hope this helps.

You need to go to the Principal with this. Be very careful to stick to absolute facts – if you exaggerate, or give your opinions, rather than facts, you lose credibility. If everything you say is accurate, there were a few problems here:

1) If this woman’s job is helping students get into college, then she seems to have inadequate information, and she should, at the very least, be willing to help you look for information which might help you. I don’t know anything about scholarships for Native Americans either, but if a student were to ask me about it, I would start researching the possibilities, rather than just acknowledge that I don’t know!

2) If she really said, “I don’t help minorities,” she was out of line. If her job is to help people get into college, and she doesn’t explore all opportunities because of her personal beliefs about affirmative action, she isn’t doing her job. The schools, and those who give the scholarships, make those decisions, and she can’t ignore them.

I would advise you not to focus on being called a minority. While the current phrase is “people of color,” there are still a lot of people, including those who themselves fit into that category, who use the term “minority”. Factually, the you are. Even if it were true that 80% of Mexicans had Native American roots (and that is only true if you are including indigenous groups from the territories outside the U.S.), ALL Hispanics constituted only 15% of the U.S. population last year, and Native Americans constituted 1%. That means that you were in the minority, whether that offends you or not. It is for exactly that reason, and the fact that these groups have been mistreated over time, that there ARE scholarships specified for people of color.

Obviously, laughing and rolling your eyes at a student’s serious questions is inappropriate behavior. Maybe she isn’t the right person for the job that she is in. There should be a counselor, not a teacher, handling college applications.

What doesn’t come through online is tone of voice, and I bet it has a lot to do with your displeasure.

You were seeking information for scholoarship based on your Native American heritage. At the current state, Native Americans are minorities. It doesn’t matter who was here first. Their numbers are now very small. (no YOU weren’t here first. Your distant ancesters were here first) Plus Mexicans are not Americans in the sense you are using the word “American.” To qualify for federal grants/scholarships, you must be an American citizen first.

I think you are making a bigger issue than it needs to be and your logic is not quite right.

My suggestion is to ask the school WHO can help you with the question. The person you asked perhaps didn’t know anything about minority based scholoarships.

Let me get this straight, first you were trying to see if you can get a scholarship, due to the fact your mother is Native American, When you found out you couldn’t get one through the school, now your white and not a minority?

I really don’t understand what your saying.

If you want to apply for a scholarship, you need to do that outside of the school.

This sounds like a communication issue, of what your trying to explain to the counselor.

I will say this, if your going to go preaching about who was in the US first your not going to get far. People want the facts of what is now important, not something that happened over 500 years ago.

And women make up 52% of the US population, but we’re often considered minorities when we apply for scholarships, especially in the sciences. And since you’re looking for a scholarship that would exist BECAUSE so few native Americans go to college, that would be considered a minority scholarship. You can’t both be offended and try to take their money at the same time.

Sounds to me like you just spoke to the wrong person. I don’t think she was saying she doesn’t like minorities, just that she’s not the one in charge of that program, so she couldn’t tell you what you needed to know.

bypass to the college board. And the term ‘minority’ would not advise one team grew to become into right here in the past the others… it skill that there are greater white human beings than the different race in this usa (inspite of the reality that i’m not sure it truly is relatively actual anymore… yet minority remains used to point everyone no longer white). I comprehend it relatively is offensive even though it truly is a cultural norm and it would be VERY no longer easy to chnage that preception yet i applaud your efforts to accomplish that. i desire you get the provide help to choose for entering into college. solid success!

If you’re one sixteenth Native American and you are then file as a Native American. you will considered a minority but it will help you with scholarships. My adviser didn’t know either. My mentor told me that – unfortunately I didn’t qualify. Politically it sucks and advisers certainly should know how to handle the situation but at least this will help you with the cost.

She is expressing her racism blatantly! You need to report her! email me direct if you can. I have info that I can fwd to you but i am not home. My sibling has a case with the eeoc with columbia university because of RACISM. AND it’s always the white woman here lately. Stand up and be counted for!

Go talk to the principal report her, then the board of education in your town, that is assurd.