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At the Archives: Native American Records
By
Arlene Jennings, CG
Dates and General Nature of the Records
NARA-Pittsfield has Native American
records dating from 1835 and for the period 1880 to 1920. Additionally, one set
(M685, Guion Miller’s reports on the Cherokees) makes reference to records
created between 1835 and 1885. The content is very much like that in census
records. The Native American records were created largely in various processes
of determining the authenticity of claims to Indian blood or citizenship. These
processes were often disorderly. Hence the records should be used with care and
further validation of the evidence found should be sought.
The Records
T496, Census Roll, 1835, of Cherokee Indians East of the
Mississippi
This census was taken before the Cherokees were moved from
east of the Mississippi to west of the Mississippi. It includes an index, lists
heads of families and provides information about each family and their property.1
Federal Census, 1880-1920
In 1880, 1890 and 1920 the general population schedule of the
federal census included Native Americans. Microfilms for the census of
1880 and 1920 are available at NARA - Pittsfield. The 1890 census was lost in a
fire in the Commerce Department building in Washington in 1921.
In the census for 1900 and 1910, if Native Americans
specifically identified themselves as such, they appear in special schedules,
“Inquiries Relating to Indians,” which follow the Enumeration Districts. They
may otherwise be listed as “white” or “mulatto” within the general schedules.1
In 1920, in addition to appearing in the general schedule,
Native Americans were enumerated in a “Supplemental Schedule for Indian
Populations,” typically at the end of each enumeration district.1
M595, Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940
“Perhaps the most useful single series for Indian genealogy”,
these are annual census
reports
prepared by Agents of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1885 to
1940 enumerating Indians in their charge. Pittsfield has Roll 17, Carlisle
[Indian] School [Pennsylvania], 1911, and New York Indians, Rolls 290-300. The
range of dates on the New York rolls is 1885–1924. They are arranged
alphabetically by Agency, then by tribe, and then numerically by year.
Information given usually includes the English and/or Indian name of each
person; age; sex; and relationship to head of family and sometimes to others on
the roll. Each individual is assigned a roll number for the order in which
enumerated and sometimes a second number referring to a previous year’s census.
Some rolls show births and deaths during the year.1
M1186, Enrollment Cards of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914
“The Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminoles
were called the “Five Civilized Tribes” because of their relatively high degree
of assimilation and intermarriage. They lived on 20,000,000 acres of land in the
center of the country that had been guaranteed to them by various treaties.
In 1887 Congress passed the “General Allotment Act” intended
essentially to destroy tribal governments by assigning individual ownership of
land. Initially the Five Civilized Tribes were exempt from the act, but as
determination to gain access to Indian lands
grew they too were threatened. In 1893 Congress authorized the
appointment of a commission to negotiate allotment agreements with the Five
Civilized Tribes, and President Cleveland appointed Henry Dawes, a retired
senator from Massachussetts to head the commission. The Commission’s task was
first of all to establish an accurate enrollment of membership of the tribes.
Membership was determined by blood and by marriage and also included Freedmen
(former slaves of the Indians) as well as Delawares and Shawnees whom the
Cherokees had adopted.2
M1186 presents the cards the Commission prepared from the
applications whether they were approved for membership, doubtful (“D”) or
rejected (“R”). Microfilm roll 1 begins with an index to the roll numbers of all
of those eventually approved, and there is also a published book index.
Information on the cards includes name; [Dawes] roll number; age; sex; degree of
Indian blood; relationship to the head of the family group; parents’ names; and
references to enrollment on earlier rolls used for verification of eligibility.
There are frequently references to enrollment cards for relatives and notations
about births, deaths, changes in marital status, and actions taken by the
Commission. The cards are arranged by number, and the final rolls indicate the
census card numbers for each enrollee.3
T529, Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five
Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 1907 and 1914
These are typed lists of names of applicants, both approved
for membership and disapproved. Individual entries are sequenced by roll number
and show name, age, sex, degree of Indian blood, and census card number for each
person. The records are categorized by name of tribe, citizens by blood,
citizens by marriage and freedmen. In many of the groups, there are separate
lists for minor children and newborn babies.3
M1104, Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of
Claims, 1906-1909
In 1906, the Eastern Cherokees won a lawsuit against the
Federal Government over treaty violations. Guion Miller was appointed to lead in
locating all persons who qualified to receive payments of claims by proving
their descent from a signator of the treaties of 1835 or 1846, or whose
ancestors were on the Eastern Cherokee roll taken in 1851.
These records show the original applications, supporting
documentation and subsequent correspondence related to the applications. The
applications show English and Indian names, residence, age, place of birth, name
of husband or wife, name of tribe, names of children, information on the
claimant’s parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts.3
There is an alphabetical surname index to the applications on
Roll 1. NARA Pittsfield also has a published book index.
M685, Records Relating to the Enrollment of the Eastern
Cherokee by Guion Miller, 1908-1910
These films contain Miller’s reports on the enrollment of the
Eastern Cherokee as well as earlier censuses that he used in determining
eligibility. The latter include rolls from 1851 and 1884, with indexes, and are
on the last roll of the series .3
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Endnotes
1.
NARA, Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives
(Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund, 1985).
2.
Kent Carter, The Dawes Commission and the Allotment of the Five Civilized
Tribes, 1893-1914 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, Inc. 1999).
3.
NARA, American Indians: A Select Catalog of National Archives Microfilm
Publications (Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund, 1995). ¨
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