Dear members,
With the turnover in the Enrollment Department and all of the giveaways from the Tribe in the past year or so, there have been countless changes of addresses and HOH status changes. The Enrollment Department has recently worked diligently to update our database and have made some changes where need be, specifically to addresses and Head of Household (HOH) statuses.
We are doing our best to make sure that tribal members’ information is correct.
Some things to keep in mind:
- Head of Household (HOH) is determined by the eldest Ponca member residing in a household.
- There is only one HOH per household.
Ex. – If you are the HOH and another Ponca member moves in with you, who is older, they will become the HOH and you will no longer be HOH. The same holds true if you move into the home of an older Ponca member. - HOH’s can share the same mailing address as long as they show different physical addresses.
Ex. – If a kid goes to college they can keep their mailing address as their parents but provide us with their physical address. Providing a different physical address will make them HOH. - Newsletters and most correspondence (flyers, notices, etc.) will be addressed to HOH’s.
- Inactive – If someone is not receiving the newsletter or other correspondence then they may have become inactive in our database. When mail is returned without a forwarding address and there is no way to contact the member, we change their status to inactive, which stops any mail from being sent to them. Once they have updated their information, then we change their status back to active and they will start receiving newsletters, etc. once again.
- Change of Address – It is important to keep your information updated with the Enrollment Department. You may find a change of address form included in the newsletter, obtain one online or at an office site or you can call/email the enrollment department to update your information. Please remember to include apartment numbers and any other Ponca members residing with you so we can keep other’s information updated as well (kids, family, friends). If a member no longer lives with you, please let us know and we will update our records.
- Custody/guardianship – If you have custody or guardianship of a Ponca member, please send court order papers to the Enrollment Department. We will keep copies of them in the members’ file and make notes of it in our database when updating their information. Without these papers we do not know who is eligible to make changes to their information.
- Deceased Members – Please send death certificates of Ponca members to the Enrollment Department. Per our law and order code we are not able to change a member’s status without this information.
We hope this helps clear up any questions or misunderstandings moving forward. If you have any other questions you may call the enrollment department in the Lincoln or Niobrara office or send an email to enrollment@poncatribe-ne.org.