native american-how much blood to be considered URM?

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MirrorTodd

MirrorTodd

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Does anyone know the rule on the title question? I was thinking that it would be possible for someone to claim it, but not necessarily be a URM. If a person grew up in a lower middle class white family and they were 25% NA, then could they claim to be a URM? Even if they didn't look like it? I know for scholarships it's not important to look like it, but the med. schools see you. It doesn't really make sense to "grow up white" and call yourself a URM. I'm part cherokee, but not nearly enough to call myself a URM.
P.S. I like trolling, but only for halibut. This is a serious question.
 
Native American is the only ethnicity that needs to provide proof of it. They require that you be a member of a tribe and all that jazz. So it pretty much doesn't matter what percentage you are, if you're not a card carrying tribe member (literally).
 
ayznshorti said:
Native American is the only ethnicity that needs to provide proof of it. They require that you be a member of a tribe and all that jazz. So it pretty much doesn't matter what percentage you are, if you're not a card carrying tribe member (literally).
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I am a card carrying memeber of the great northern cherokee Tribe of Missiouri. 1/64 baby. I also have 1/8 navajo that i can't prove.

I think you need 1/16 for a scholarship. They cut out alot of those in 2000 though, tighted up the restrictions.
 
Native Americans aren't URM in the sense of med school URM (imo) b/c you have to prove it
if you wanna be considered NA, you have to register w/ the tribe
my friend did it but her mom was Navajo but adopted out during this wierd send the Navajo kids to "white" families in like the 70s, my friend wanted to learn navajo & work w/ the IHS
 
I think the answer is quite simple. Everyone knows who they are. Just be honest with yourself. How did you grow up? Some people who are half-asian/half-white are more in touch with their Asian side. Some are not. At the end of the day, you just have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and know that you didn't have to go out of your way to justify your decision.
 
Doesn't matter what you look like as long as you have your tribe card to prove you are of NA decent. Keep it in your wallet during the interview 🙂
 
I am also Cherokee (50%) and I never had to show it to any school. I actually called the admission offices at each school to see if i should put it on my app since i am not a card carrying member (my great-grandfather was taken from his reservation and placed in an americanizing "finishing school" which made him and his offspring unable to sign the Dawes Roll). But PKboi has a point: be true to yourself.

Furthermore, each app asks about economic/educational disadvantage that you experienced because of your ethnic background or other reasons. I did not and was very honest about that.
 
i believe it's 1/8, but you have to prove it.
 
MirrorTodd said:
Does anyone know the rule on the title question? I was thinking that it would be possible for someone to claim it, but not necessarily be a URM. If a person grew up in a lower middle class white family and they were 25% NA, then could they claim to be a URM? Even if they didn't look like it? I know for scholarships it's not important to look like it, but the med. schools see you. It doesn't really make sense to "grow up white" and call yourself a URM. I'm part cherokee, but not nearly enough to call myself a URM.
P.S. I like trolling, but only for halibut. This is a serious question.
Click to expand...

I understand that if you run up to the interviewer's desk, shriek fiercely, and touch him with your "coup stick" that counts even if you aren't a native American.

I tried to talk like a 1940s movie Western Indian but I don't think they bought it even though I am a native American by virtue of being born in Virginia. I think my Greek last name tipped them off.

Glad I could help.
 
Vox Animo said:
I am a card carrying memeber of the great northern cherokee Tribe of Missiouri. 1/64 baby. I also have 1/8 navajo that i can't prove.

I think you need 1/16 for a scholarship. They cut out alot of those in 2000 though, tighted up the restrictions.
Click to expand...

Jesus Christ. 1/16? Now we're just being silly.
 
Vox Animo said:
I am a card carrying memeber of the great northern cherokee Tribe of Missiouri. 1/64 baby. I also have 1/8 navajo that i can't prove..
Click to expand...
Cherokee decendants in the house! 👍 My great grand mother was 1/2 Cherokee!
 
I dated a Native American once. Does that count? Can I put that on my app?
 
5 or more pints.
 
I know many a person who BSd on their supposed NA roots, that might fly for undergrad, but could get you snagged at the med school level. Realize that you could be in your career 10 years post med school and if someone really hates your butt and brings that up, you could be banned for life from practicing medicine. NA roots are definitely more well documented than say Hispanic, so if you do want to BS, I would go Mexican or something. Heck anyone COULD be from Mexico, there are tons of blond European types down there.
 
LADoc00 said:
I know many a person who BSd on their supposed NA roots, that might fly for undergrad, but could get you snagged at the med school level. Realize that you could be in your career 10 years post med school and if someone really hates your butt and brings that up, you could be banned for life from practicing medicine. NA roots are definitely more well documented than say Hispanic, so if you do want to BS, I would go Mexican or something. Heck anyone COULD be from Mexico, there are tons of blond European types down there.
Click to expand...

Actually, no one would care.
 
Jacks Mannequin said:
I dated a Native American once. Does that count? Can I put that on my app?
Click to expand...


Native American by injection?
 
Most of my family is Irish, and they were notorius for marrying anyone.

So have cherokee blood i can prove, and navajo, oklahoma, and one more that i don't knwo the name that i can't prove. Some of my family walked in the trail of tears.
 
Maybe I can share what might happen in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, having a tribal membership card will not help you at all - you must have a CDIB card (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood), which shows that you are a member of a federally recognized tribe. To the best of my knowledge, none of the Cherokee organizations in Missouri or Arkansas have ever achieved federal recognition. Which I know is a real drag - my direct ancestors came from eastern Tennessee on the Trail of Tears but they stopped in Missouri when the eldest male died - and, because they did not make it all the way to Oklahoma until much later, I am part Cherokee by heritage and can prove it but I do not have a CDIB and never will - if your lineal ancestors did not reside on Cherokee lands when the Dawes Rolls closed around 1900, you're out-of-luck. The tribes maintain that your ancestors lost citizenship when they left tribal lands.

There are indeed blood quantam requirements for many Native American scholarships. Things are different in the Native American world - even if you were adopted by a Native American family just after birth, you are not considered to be Native American unless you can prove blood. The NA scholarships I've seen all require 1/4 quantam. There is a reason for this - I have actually seen people with quantams less than 1/1000 trying to claim tribal benefits.

So, you could apply as a Native American URM and, in many places, your self-reporting might not be questioned - but here in Oklahoma you'd be asked for your CDIB first thing.
 
no one is going to ask you to prove it unless they think you're lying for some reason.
 
Non-TradTulsa said:
Maybe I can share what might happen in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, having a tribal membership card will not help you at all - you must have a CDIB card (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood), which shows that you are a member of a federally recognized tribe. To the best of my knowledge, none of the Cherokee organizations in Missouri or Arkansas have ever achieved federal recognition. Which I know is a real drag - my direct ancestors came from eastern Tennessee on the Trail of Tears but they stopped in Missouri when the eldest male died - and, because they did not make it all the way to Oklahoma until much later, I am part Cherokee by heritage and can prove it but I do not have a CDIB and never will - if your lineal ancestors did not reside on Cherokee lands when the Dawes Rolls closed around 1900, you're out-of-luck. The tribes maintain that your ancestors lost citizenship when they left tribal lands.

There are indeed blood quantam requirements for many Native American scholarships. Things are different in the Native American world - even if you were adopted by a Native American family just after birth, you are not considered to be Native American unless you can prove blood. The NA scholarships I've seen all require 1/4 quantam. There is a reason for this - I have actually seen people with quantams less than 1/1000 trying to claim tribal benefits.

So, you could apply as a Native American URM and, in many places, your self-reporting might not be questioned - but here in Oklahoma you'd be asked for your CDIB first thing.
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Can we all agree that if you need a certificate to prove that you a URM then you probably don't need to be claiming this on your application. I mean, you can be the poster boy for the Hitler Youth and still be 1/8 Cherokee. Hell, most of the rednecks I meet proudly claim that they are one something or another indian.

Still, I'm happy to see the machinary of affirmative action collapsing from the weight of its own contradictions.
 
Panda Bear said:
Can we all agree that if you need a certificate to prove that you a URM then you probably don't need to be claiming this on your application. I mean, you can be the poster boy for the Hitler Youth and still be 1/8 Cherokee. Hell, most of the rednecks I meet proudly claim that they are one something or another indian.

Still, I'm happy to see the machinary of affirmative action collapsing from the weight of its own contradictions.
Click to expand...

awesome
 
Panda Bear said:
I mean, you can be the poster boy for the Hitler Youth and still be 1/8 Cherokee.
Click to expand...
No kidding. I don't look Native American at all, nor do I identify with the culture, nor do I know any history of the tribe... but my great grandfather was 100% Chippewa. That'd make me Native American enough to qualify for some scholarships, but it'd be pretty lame for me to accept anything like that.
 
Get good grades, score well on the MCAT, and volunteer often.
This formula has worked for most of all med school hopeful students.
 
dude, u could get a blood transfusion from a native american and still be more than 1/64 native american. 😀
 
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