The
Five Civilized TribesThe
Five Civilized Tribes
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Tracing
Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes
Stories about Indian ancestors in the family tree are common among
both black and white families whose roots go deep into the American
Southeast, especially those with links to the Cherokee, Chickasaw,
Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole (the Five Civilized Tribes). If the
accounts of family elders can be believed, those ancestors lived in the
not-too-distant past. Yet despite the strength of family
convictions--and the prized portraits of forebears whose features
suggest Indian heritage--most researchers who pursue these traditions
feel they are chasing a phantom. Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized
Tribes is designed to eliminate speculation and help you determine
the truth about your Indian ancestry. It focuses on the toughest period
to research--the century or so prior to the removal of the Southeastern
nations to Indian Territory, the point at which records were regularly
maintained. It provides the cultural, genealogical, and historical
background needed to turn family stories into proved lineages. And it
outlines a method of research that can carry you from the colonial
period to the great tribal rolls of the mid-to-late nineteenth century,
using the unique records kept by American, English, French, and Spanish
governments. |
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The
Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in
Indian Territory [and] Index to the Final Rolls
In 1893, when the Dawes Commission was established to negotiate with
the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws. Creeks, and Seminoles (the Five
Civilized Tribes) to abolish tribal governments and to provide for the
allotment of land to tribal members, few could have foreseen that this
would lead to the creation of one of the most important record sources
in all of Native American genealogy, for the Dawes Commission was
empowered to prepare citizenship rolls (membership rolls) for each tribe
to determine the proper distribution of land and to hear and "determine
the applications of all persons who may apply to them for citizenship
and . . . determine the right of such applicant to be admitted and
enrolled." These rolls, known as the "Final Rolls," were to be the only rolls
used for allotment purposes, and because of the rigorous application
procedures involving proof of blood and tribal affiliation, they are the
basis for the official identification of degrees of Indian blood among
the Five Civilized Tribes. Applications for enrollment were received from approximately
250,000 individuals, but the Final Rolls approved by the Commission
contained the names of 101,000, of whom approximately one-fourth were
full blood. The Commission enrolled individuals as "citizens" of a tribe
under the following categories: Citizens by Blood, Citizens by Marriage,
New Born Citizens by Blood, Minor Citizens by Blood, Freedmen (former
black slaves admitted to tribal citizenship), New Born Freedmen, and
Minor Freedmen. Most rolls give name, age, sex, degree of Indian blood,
and the number of the census card, generally known as the "enrollment
card," on which each citizen was enrolled. (Enrollment cards, as
distinct from the Final Rolls themselves, are arranged by tribe,
thereunder by category, and thereunder by the census card number shown
as part of the individual's entry on the Final Rolls, and they usually
contain parents' names and places of residence, the names of related
enrollees--husband, wife, children--and references to earlier tribal
rolls.) From the original Final Rolls, which are now housed in National
Archives II at College Park, Maryland, the Commission in 1907 published
The Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes
in Indian Territory along with the Index to the Final Rolls of
Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory,
now reprinted here for the first time in nearly a century. The Index
volume, divided by tribe and broken down under the various categories
noted above, provides the Indian's name and the roll number; while the
roll number is the key to the Final Rolls volume, which lists
enrollees by tribe and category and thereunder by name, age, sex, degree
of blood, and the number of the census card. Unparalleled in Native American genealogy, the work reprinted here
is one of the finest printed sources relating to the genealogy of the
Five Civilized Tribes and is the reference of choice for any researcher
claiming even a fraction of tribal blood |
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A Gazetteer of Indian Territory
Students of Native American genealogy will welcome the re-publication of
Henry Gannett's Gazetteer of Indian Territory, first published in
1905. Gannett, geographer for the U.S. Geological Survey, oversaw the
publication of the Gazetteer between the Oklahoma Land Rushes of 1889 to
1895 and Oklahoma's admission as the 46th state in 1907. Indian
Territory refers to those remaining southwest lands that had become
home, primarily, to the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole) following their removal from the
southeastern states in 1833. (Small reservations of Quapaw, Peoria,
Modoc, Ottawa, Wyandot, and Shawnee dotted the northwestern corner of
the territory.) Indian Territory is bounded on the north by
Kansas, on the east by Arkansas, on the south by Texas, and on the west
by Oklahoma. Readers will find a valuable description of the region's
geological, geographical, demographic, and economic characteristics in
Mr. Gannett's Introduction. The bulk of the book, of course, consists of
an alphabetical list of 2,100 place names, scattered through Indian
Territory. The place names range from villages, to railway stations, to
bodies of water, and to other natural formations. Each place name is
identified in relation to the Indian nation on whose reservation it
could be found and with reference to Indian Nation atlas sheets
published separately by the U.S. Geological Survey. All in all, this is
a great tool for researchers with ancestors among the Five Civilized
Tribes and other Indian nations. |
(12-5-2004)
![The Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory [and] Index to the Final Rolls](images/5903.gif "The Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory [and] Index to the Final Rolls")
