And the unfortunate kid doesn’t get it because, while many of her ancestors were Native Americans, not enough of her Mohican and Menominee ancestry is from any one particular tribe to meet tribal rules for enrolled membership. So no debt-free degree deal for her, apparently.
The student and her family are blameless — one wishes her well in her studies — and the Mohican and the Menominee are free to say who’s a member or not. Those are private issues.
Public policy enters when it’s the state, through its university, doing something that American law and most Wisconsinites don’t want: passing out favors on the basis of race.
The law does not allow Wisconsin to give anyone a free ride based on racial identity such as being Native American. So instead, UW-Madison is basing the cost waiver on membership in one of 11 federally recognized Wisconsin tribes.
Most would say it amounts to pretty much the same thing, a distinction without a difference. But there’s a legal reason they’re doing the end-around.