Gaining access to college after high school is a particularly important step for all categories of society. For the past few years, many scholarships have been available for the Native Americans to help them pursue their dreams. Native Americans now can count on those scholarships to go further in their education.

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To get acceptance to certain scholarships, Native American students should be able to provide proof that they are of American ancestry. Even though many scholarships are given on a basis of need or merit, Native American students are required to demonstrate the following:

That they have family and tribal records, or they are of Native American descent and lineage. To do so, Native American students should apply for a Certificate of Degree of Indian or Alaska Native Blood from the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. This certificate is proof of the relationship of the Native American student to an enrolled member(s) of a federally recognized Indian tribe, whether it is through your birth mother or birth father, or both. A federally recognized Indian tribe means an Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community which appears on the list of recognized tribes published in the Federal Register by the Secretary of the Interior. Furthermore, the Certificate Degree of Indian Blood will help Native American Students to apply for financial aid programs that strictly conceive for them.

Native American students should pay close attention to the details of the scholarship before applying by the fact that some scholarships are intended for specific tribes such as Cherokee, Caddo, Seminole, Kiowa, or Navajo tribes. However, there are no restrictions for Native American students to apply for other categories of scholarships, grants, loans, or financial aids.