Researched family and found that we have Cherokee Blood line. Where do I go for more information?

Question

Reasearched family heritage to find american indian. Where do I go to get furhter information?

Answer 1

That's not always easy. The only primary source documents available for tracing and "proving" our Cherokee heritage are the rolls. The challenge is to trace our families to one or more of these rolls. The National Archives carries the records of the five civilized tribes. (Cherokee, Choctoaw, Creek, Chicasaw, and Seminole) Here are some resources that they carry.

The Dawes Rolls
Final Rolls, often called Dawes Rolls, are lists of people accepted between 1898 and 1914 by the Dawes Commission as members of these five civilized Indian tribes - Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole. Learn how to search and use the Dawes Rolls online to research your Native American ancestors.

1880 Cherokee Census
A transcription taken from LDS Microfilm #989204 of the 1880 Cherokee Census index. (You can order this through your local Latter Day Saints research center in your town. )

1896 Census Applications
An index of people who applied for enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes under the Act of 1896. Covers Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek.

Baker Roll, 1924
The final roll of the Eastern Cherokee, prepared by United States Agent Fred A. Baker, pursuant to an act of the 68th Congress on June 4, 1924.

Kern Clifton Rolls
An easy to use index to online digital copies of the Kern-Clifton index of Cherokee Freedmen.

Old Settlers Roll
This census, taken in 1851, lists the Cherokee who moved to Indian Territory in Oklahoma prior to December 1835. This covers about 1/3 of the Cherokee present in the area in 1851.

Indian Bounty Land Applications
Learn about available indexes and abstracts of Indian Bounty Land applications from the nineteenth century, and ways to use the records in your Native American research. An article by Mary Frances Morrow from Prologue the quarterly of the National Archives & Records Administration.

The best ones are the detailed surname listings for the two "final" rolls -- Dawes and Baker:
Results include: name, age, blood quantum, and roll number.
Names are organized in an easy to read alphabetical listing.


There is an online index to the final Dawes rolls at the national archives website. Here is a page that explains them:

http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/tutorial/dawes/

and here is where you go to access the index.

http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/native-americans-final-rolls.html
and here is the index to the Guion Miller Roll

http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/native-americans-guion-miller.html

You can order online reproductions of Eastern Cherokee application records, 1906-1909 Here is the link

http://www.archives.gov/research/order/orderonline.html

I hope this helps. Blessings to you in your search.

Answer 2

Here are some Cherokee (official tribal) websites. You can learn about the culture and get in contact with the tribe using these:
www.cherokee.org/
www.cherokee-nc.com/
www.georgiatribeofeasterncherokee.com
www.amonsoquath.net

To become enrolled you need the last names of those who are Native. You can proceed from there with the information listed below:

Information on how to become enrolled is listed below:

To become enrolled in one's tribe is often a difficult process. Once one is enrolled one will have certain rights as a Native person. It is true that no one needs to prove their ethnic identity but to have full access to rights for Native people one must be enrolled.

To become enrolled one must first should call one's tribe and find out the enrollment requirements. They are different per tribe.
For most tribes you have to prove descendency and have a certain blood quantum. To prove descendency one needs to have some record of her belonging to a member of the tribe that was recognized by the tribe at some point, hopefully an individual that was enrolled at some point. The average blood quantum standard is 1/4. Unless you are Cherokee, their blood quantum standards are much less.

If you don't have contact with your tribal member then you can ask the tribe to look for his last name. They can look this up and see if his family line is registered. If so then your in luck. If they don't immediately find it then you can use the tribal newspaper and submit an article asking if anyone has lineage to your tribal member .

Many Native people can never become enrolled because standards of enrollment are high and were set up by the White government to oppress Native people and Native people have yet to change them.

To become more involved in one'sculture one might want to look up local Native organizations or local tribes. Try going to Pow-wow's (because they are easy to find) and talk to community members there. Many colleges/universities have a Native student union where one can get involved or get more information.

Please remember ancestry is very difficult for many Native people.

By the way, I am Native, so I have some knowledge pertaining to this.

Answer 3

Hey Woodstock,

HSK did an excellent job laying out what you need to do. She knows what she is saying. All I can add to that is to give a few additional web sites for Cherokee Tribes.