About 123,000 American Indian students attend public schools in Oklahoma.

Graduation seems a world away to Summer Cornelius, a senior at Memorial High School in Tulsa.

Between playing in the school's orchestra and membership in the National Honor Society, she hasn't decided where to go to college, let alone how she will pay for it.

Still, it is in the back of her mind, she said.

"Life is important, and you have to put work into it," Cornelius, 17, said.

Cornelius, a member of the Seminole Nation, is one of hundreds of high school seniors who will look for financial assistance from her tribe after graduation to help meet the rising costs of college.

With about 123,000 American Indian students attending Oklahoma's public schools, the need for tribal college assistance is growing.

American Indian students are likely to look to their tribes for general and federal scholarships that can mean from $1,000 to $3,700 per semester per student, depending on the tribal affiliation, officials said.

Guidelines vary from tribe to tribe. Most include threshold income and grade requirements. Proof of tribal citizenship is a standard requirement.

Some Oklahoma tribes receive federal Bureau of Indian Affairs funding to pay for education costs, but that money is limited.

Several successful gaming tribes, such as the Choctaw Nation in Durant,

The extra funding not only ensures that more tribal students enroll in college but that they stay there, Choctaw Nation Chief Greg Pyle said.

"It is vital that the Choctaw Nation provide education opportunities to its tribal members," he said.

Some tribes, such as the Osage, Choctaw and Iowa, offer financial incentives to enrolled students with qualifying grades. The grades-based bonuses get the message across, said Robert Hyatt, the Osage Nation's higher education director.

Tribes that don't have motor fuels operations still qualify for money set aside in a group fund that their students can access.

The money in this fund is a percentage of pooled revenues earned by state tribes with motor fuels operations.

S.E. Ruckman 581-8462
se.ruckman@tulsaworld.com