UCLA American Indian Studies Center Yellowthunder Gala Dinner Saturday, November 17, 2001 Reception 5:30 p.m. ~ Dinner 7:00 p.m. UCLA Covel Commons The Yellowthunder Scholarship is the Center's current major effort to increase scholarship funds for students in Native American Studies. The Yellowthunder and similar funds will allow the program greater capability to support students financially and to attract highly qualified graduate and undergraduate students to UCLA and to the American Indian Studies program. Our keynote speaker will be the Honorable Daniel K. Inouye, U.S. Senator. For inquiries, contact us at (310) 825-2628

Yellowthunder Scholarship History

During the past twenty years the American Indian Studies Center has slowly developed the Arianna and Hannah Yellowthunder Scholarship award, mainly through small donations. Named after the relatives of one of the major donors, the scholarship fund was endowed in the early 1980s, providing Native American undergraduate students in the social sciences with awards of $1,250 or more. Since then, many students have benefited from the fund, with scholarship awards ranging from $1,250 to $5,000. Many students, faculty, community members, and corporations have provided donations to the fund, which, for the first time, exceeded $200,000 in 1998. The fund yields 5 percent of the principal, and currently generates slightly more than $5,000 per year.

Since passage of Proposition 209 and because of increasing demand for student aid support among our master's degree program students, we have pooled our resources and efforts in order to endow the scholarship fund at the $200,000 mark. Now students within our undergraduate minor and master's degree programs in American Indian Studies are eligible for Yellowthunder scholarships. We believe that the new means of distribution will help ensure that students who have interests in American Indian culture, history, and contemporary issues will form the Yellowthunder applicant pool.

While the fund is small, the Center is making a long-term commitment to increase the principal and make available similar funds that will help support American Indians Studies students at UCLA. Students in the Indian Studies program are in great need of tuition and support funding.