A lot of people believe, just because you are 1/4 or more Native American Indian that you receive the per capita monies from the casinos and all the ammenities from the tribe. This isn't so. If you are not a tribal member, you do not receive anything from the tribe. At one time just being a decendent you could get some help for medical and dental. A lot of Native American children and adults alike rely on this Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver. Because they need that help. Because the tribes say they look after there own people but in reality they don't unless you are a tribal member. I am the wife of an 1/2 degree blood quantum Indian, his father was full blooded. But his mother was white. He doesn't receive nothing from the tribe. He isn't a tribal member. Neither are his four sisters. His only brother passed away in 1984. I was married to him and had two children. I then married his brother and had two more children. The only thing our children had to look forward to was the Indian Tuition Waiver. Though we both always worked we never made enough to send them to college. Now the tribe is saying to get this I.T.W. you have to be a tribal member. Thats not right, the ones that are members can afford to pay for their college tuition with per capita monies. My oldest daughter was 4 months old when her father passed away and my son would have been 3 years old. My oldest daughter put herself through college and then her brother and her hired a lawyer to get to be tribal members, because their father had passed away before they had open enrollment. They have to pay this lawyer $500.00 each a week for five years just to be members of the tribe that their forefathers built. Its too bad that my husband and children are denied their heritage and now they are taking the Indian Tuition Waiver away too. Denying that they are Indian. My husband use to be proud to be Indian and of his heritage. His grandfather and greatgrandfather and greatgreatgrandfather were cheifs of that same tribe. Our youngest daughter is now going to Nursing school, working and trying her best to pay her tuition with the help from us. But it would be nice if she could get some help from the Indian Tuition Waiver, this way she wouldn't have to work so hard to pay for it and focus on her studies. What ever happened to " A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste" Oh yeah, thats the Negro College Fund. Not the Indian Fund.