I was the range the other day shooting the breeze with several buds and we were talking about who gets hired and why.
I offered that I should have put Native American as my race, instead of white (My great grandfather was NA). I said it not really being too serious.
But a couple of the guys sounded off that it would increase my chances of getting hired and that I should change it.
At the HQ of a major police department I was struck by a sign that said, "Now hiring minorities and women" right on the recruiters door. So it kind of resounded.
Can one change their racial identity bubble on future applications?
How much NA ancestry do you have to have to be considered NA?
Suethem,
The US Census Bureau defines "Native American" in this way:
"People having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment."
In your case, the "tribal affiliation" may be the stumbling block. Are you a "member" of a tribe or go to those annual Pow-wows they have?
Tribes have differing requirements regarding degrees of ethnicity to be considered a member. Odds are that you would be eligible for tribal membership. If your great-grandfather was NA, but his wife was not, and the subsequent descendants did not have NA spouses, you are 1/8 NA. Most tribes start the cutoff at 1/16.
Orolan,
thanks for the reply.
No I don't have membership and I haven't gone to any tribal meetings.
The family believes that my great grandfather was a semi-professional hockey player in the Candian league. He had one child, my grandmother, lost his wife, and then was asked to leave town a few years later. Other family members raised my grandmother. It would be hard to track down, but is interesting none the less.
That part of my family is from northern Michigan so I guess my great grandfather could have been Chippewa, Huron or another tribe (although he could have been from one of many tribes).
I will look into it more as a curiosity than anything else.
Suethem,
I'm fortunate in that my cousin has devoted most of her adult life to researching our ancestry. If I need to know something, I just call her :)