Only some American Indians in Michigan will qualify for a college tuition waiver this fall.
Until this month, any Native American student could waive tuition at public universities if they met certain conditions. Now the state and federally recognized Michigan tribes have limited the program to only federally recognized tribes.
In exchange for land used to build an American Indian boarding school in Mount Pleasant, Mich. tribes made an agreement with the federal government that ensured the education of its future generations.
The agreement was made in the 1930s and has since come to include a waiver of tuition costs at public colleges and universities, save for extras such as housing, meal plans and other fees.
Two years ago, Michigan approved an amendment to the state constitution banning affirmative action in government operations.
Harold Core, a spokesman for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, says there have been some grumblings from critics of the American Indian waiver since Proposal 2 passed.
Two sovereign nations
As a precaution, the state worked with tribes through a series of meetings to secure the waiver. The Civil Rights Commission decided to limit it only to tribes recognized by the federal government. It will be up to the individual schools how they will enforce the change, he says.
Core says that way the agreement is between two independent nations and, arguably, has nothing to do with race.
"These tribes are essentially sovereign nations that are located within the state of Michigan," Core said. "Every few years the state government will sign an accord with these 12 tribes basically recognizing them as sovereign and them recognizing our authority as a state. That is a political relationship."
Tribal sovereignty, though a complex and constantly litigated issue, hinges on the federal government's recognition that tribes prior to European contact operated within the United States as independent nations making agreements with each other. After European arrival, the federal government continued a similar government-to-government relationship by making treaties, as they have made with foreign countries. It is a relationship the federal government has carries on today.
The price of state-only recognition
There are two tribes in Michigan recognized by the state but not by the federal government - the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians based in Brutus, Mich. and the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians, headquartered in Grand Rapids. Both have been seeking recognition from the federal government.
Students from those tribes are now excluded from using the tuition waiver. The number of students who will be affected by this change are not yet known.
And though both tribes had previously enjoyed the benefit, they say they were not part of the discussions with the state that led to the change. Some of the tribes that were involved in the decision were themselves not federally recognized until the 90s or even more recently.
This troubles Scott Wyzlic.
Wyzlic is a member of the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians who says the agreement should apply to all Michigan tribes, as it was made on behalf of all Indian tribes.
"Governor William Comstock agreed to take the land where the Mount Pleasant boarding school was, 212 acres I believe, in exchange for the federal government's treaty responsibilities for educating Indians," Wyzlic says. "So to eliminate non-federally recognized tribes, such as Burt Lake and Grand River, it just floors me."
Already, Burt Lake Band chairman Curtis P. Chambers has gotten calls about four students in the past week who have been turned down by state colleges for the tuition waiver. Chambers maintains that while the tribe should be federally recognized, the bigger issue is that his tribe and ancestors were a part of the land agreement made with the federal government in exchange for their education.
"We were never included in this discussion," Chambers said. "Using Indians to hold down other Indians is unconscionable."
Augustine Kiogima is the vice chairman of Burt Lake, which was once a federally recognized tribe.
He planned to use the tuition waiver this fall for automotive studies. He too considers the change unfair and says that he is not sure that Burt Lake members even know about it yet. And he worries about the future of his people after the revocation of the tuition waiver.
"It did help out. I know quite a few family members, tribal members that have used that as, you know, as a tool to better their education," Kiogima says. "But obviously, now, that's not gonna be the choice when it comes to Burt Lake. We are all Native American. It should not only be the certain groups."
Many in the Burt Lake Band qualify for membership in the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa in Petoskey. Kiogima says that he hopes membership numbers will not fall because of this decision.
The application will continue to require residency in Michigan for 12 consecutive months and to be of one-quarter Indian blood.
The changes will go into effect this fall.