I figured I’d just be blunt. It’s often said that depending on the tribe, if you can prove at least ¼ or sometimes ⅛ ancestry (IOW one grand or great-grandparent) and can receive a share of gaming revenue. I know my mother’s either great (or maybe great-great) grandmother was a full-blooded Native American. I also know it gets complicated, the vast majority of full-NAs don’t receive any profits from gaming, nor could I pretend for one second that our family has in even the tiniest way remained connected to any NA culture.
Still, I’m curious. Google wasn’t much help. Anyone know a logical way/place to begin checking this out?
If you know what tribe your was connected to, they have vast records to trace you back to your ancestors. The tribes do a good job reaching out to people who want to be a part of it. I know in Oklahoma if you’re 1/16 native american, you’re entitled to certain reservation and government grants. They spend a lot of casino money on the reservations building up the community and of course buying more slot machines. I know divisions of the tribes will get checks annually to do so as they please, some split it up and writes checks to everyone or they build something everyone can enjoy. They’re like a mini state in a big state(own hospitals, schools) except they do what they want for the most part.
Casinos aren’t owned by generic indians in common. They are owned by particular tribes, for the benefit of the particular tribe. So to get a share of that sweet sweet indian casino money, you need to get a tribe that owns a casino to recognize that you’re a member of that tribe. Tribes get to decide for themselves who qualifies as a member of the tribe, and so different tribes have different criteria for determining who is in and who is out.
And so there are casinos on land near major populations centers that are making a lot of money for the members of those small tribes, and there are large tribes with reservations out the desert and mountains who get nothing.