Michigan is another one- the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver covers full tuition for Master's and PhDs, and in-state tuition for undergraduate programs at all colleges in Michigan. The only stipulations are you need to be enrolled (it doesn't matter where in the US your tribe is) and to have lived in Michigan for a consecutive year. It's certainly the only reason I've gotten an education.

Thankfully Michigan has some great schools for business, law, engineering, nursing, etc that can set you on a stable path in life.

To clarify, the Ojibwe people surround the Great Lakes- some are in Canada and some are in the US. In the case of my friend, her Canadian Ojibwe heritage is not recognized by any Ojibwe tribe in the US.

Indigenous ancestry that has no basis within the US (in your example, Maya from Guatemala) not only has no tribes inside the US to recognize/not recognize you, you won't be recognized by the US federally.

A wonderful question! You wouldn't be recognized in the United States as being Native American. US law surrounding indigenous people is based upon "federally-recognized" tribes. As you can imagine, there ARE people within the US whose tribe is not federally recognized- and as a result are barred from any programs, as well as culturally significant legalities, such as being able to handle/possess eagle parts.

I have a friend with tribal heritage from Canada, who was born as a US citizen. As a result, no tribe in the US recognizes her blood quantum, and Canada won't let her enroll because she's not a Canadian citizen.

By government cheese, I assume they're referring to how you gain access (as an enrolled member of a tribe) to tuition waivers for college (some are limited to certain tribes in a state, some are available to any tribe) and being able to go to Indian Health Services for healthcare (which is so unreliable in some parts of the US you might as well have no healthcare)

As for reparations I assume they are referring to tribes who have treaty money disbursed (an example is the 1854 Treaty Authority) in some interval (yearly, quarterly, etc).

Which yeah, is speaking in generalities. I've had people assume we all get "casino money" while my tribe's casino is so poorly managed all it does is lose money, and the only money you're getting from it is working minimum wage as a gift shop cashier

and on the flip side, as stated by others, there is the issue of blood quantum not being a suitable measure for enrollment anymore (because we're certainly not going to accomplish much by inbreeding), and due to other failings of the enrollment and legal systems, I know people who have a very high blood quantum who can't be enrolled anywhere, but they're certainly involved in culture and community

the question of "what makes someone indigenous" beyond what your genetic make-up is a rather large deal in tribal communities

when I was in college there were only (as far as I know) 12 other students besides myself that were indigenous (out of around 7000 total students)

a portion of those were certainly people who found out they were 1/128th something and changed their whole demeanor because of it. they tended to be just using it as a quirky fact to stand out, and knew nothing about their cultures

but finding out your heritage later is not always necessarily a bad thing; I also have a (newly-met) relative who found out his tribal ancestry and as a result he put enormous effort into learning cultural practices, became fluent in the language, etc, and knows far more than I do, even having grown up in a tribal community