Box-Checking or Documentation: Marking Indigenous in Michigan Universities

• In Event: 15.039 - The College Experience for Indigenous Youth: Facing Roadblocks While Engaging With Cultural Identity and Policy

Abstract

Objectives
This research is broadly concerned with the verification of Indigeneity that Indigenous youth experience in various public universities in Michigan. Because Indigeneity is identified through two different processes, Michigan is a unique spot to have this conversation. For instance, Michigan offers the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver for Indigenous students to attend any public university who meet two specific criteria including, residency for one year and documentation proving ¼ blood quantum through tribal enrollment or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Additionally, these institutions use self-identification mechanisms in the admissions process to identify incoming students who are Indigenous, called “box checking” in this paper. This paper questions the discrepancies in numbers between those Indigenous students identifying through box checking and those identified through documents-based approaches.

Theoretical framework
Examining the experience of Indigenous students on a public university campus, must include the conversations regarding power, specifically who has it and who does not have it in higher education institutions. As a sub theory under Critical Race Theory, TribalCrit is used to examine this relationship of Indigenous students and the institutions. One of the issues differentiating Critical Race Theory from TribalCrit is the special political status Tribal citizens hold with the United States government. Furthermore, Brian M. J. Brayboy (2006) includes colonization, assimilation, traditional theories, and sovereignty as some of the additional power aspects for TribalCrit that are not covered in CRT (p. 429 -430).

Data Sources
Data sources are two-fold, documents and interviews. After obtaining the Indigenous student population of all 13 public universities in Michigan, with numbers for those who checked the box and those who receive the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver, each participant was given the information for their university. Through one-one interviews, Indigenous students shared their thoughts and concerns about the discrepancies between self-identification and document-based processes. This paper discusses their thoughts on how they interpret university admissions questions about Indigeneity and what is missed in the admissions process with regard to their Indigeneity.

Scholarly significance of the study
When people commit ethnic fraud they are defining within themselves racially and ethnically who is Indigenous (Pewewardy & Frey, 2004). Holding universities responsible for this phenomenon and demonstrating the impact it has upon Indigenous students and their communities is the first step to marking the need for change. Furthermore, this study problematizes existing university programs aimed at recruitment and retention of Indigenous students and questions who they are intended for and who they are serving.

Author

• Sandi Wemigwase, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto