How do i find out information about getting money for having indian blood in me?

Question

my fiance has indian ancestory and we want to find out how to get compensation from it. his tribe (we believe) is from san diego area

Answer 1

You have to be able to document the ancestry through birth records.

Answer 2

Tribes don't give anyone money just for having a native ancestor. The tribes do share the profits of casinos with tribal members, but don't imagine it's easy to join. He would have to have a parent who is an actively enrolled tribal member in order to register and then it usually requires a certain number of years of actively participating in tribal activities before he would qualify for member profits.

What you're telling us is that you're not even sure which tribe his ancestor may have belonged to. It's not going to be an easy haul to get tribal membership. He'll have to find birth, marriage and death records on every one of his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc until he proves direct kinship to someone who was a recognized member of the tribe. That's harder than it sounds if his family didn't stay active in the tribe.

They're not eager to have long-lost family members drop in and join the tribe just to get a paycheck. You'll find serious resistance and will have to work hard to prove that you're worthy of joining. My husband's tribe won't even consider someone whose family hasn't registered with the tribal council for more than one generation. In their eyes, the family walked away and turned their backs on the tribe during the hard years, so they don't want the grandchildren and great-grandchildren back after all the lawsuits are over and the hard work was done by someone else.

Answer 3

most of us do but that gets us nothing.  You will need to check with the individual tribes to determine what part indian is enough to be recognized by the tribe, i.e. 1/4, 1/8 etc.

Answer 4

genevieve is right...

and shame on you for trying to get "free" money for something you know nothing about!!!!!!!