Dawes RecordsFive Civilized Tribes–Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole Tribes in Oklahoma |
The Final Rolls
The Commission prepared these rolls and submitted them to the Secretary of the Interior for approval.
- The rolls include both approved and rejected names.
- Most rolls give the name, age, sex, degree of Indian blood, and roll and census card number of each person.
- There is a printed version of the Final Rolls in the Textual Finding Aids room of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.
- An online copy is available in the National Archives Catalog.
Land Allotments
There is a land allotment file for each approved enrollment number, but they are not available on microfilm. For copies of these files or for more information about rejected applications contact the National Archives at Kansas City.
See the National Archives Catalog description for the series, Applications for Allotment, 1899–1907, created by the Office of the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes (National Archives Identifier 559520)
Enrollment Cards and Applications
An enrollment card, sometimes referred to as a census card, recorded information provided by individual applications submitted by members of the same family group or household and includes notation of actions taken. The information given for each applicant includes name, roll number (individual's roll number if enrolled), age sex, degree of Indian blood, relationship to the head of the family group, and parents' names. The card often includes references to kin-related enrollment cards and notations about births, deaths, changes in marital status.
Note: Enrollment cards are arranged into three tiers. 1). Tribe: Cherokee, Choctaw, Mississippi Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole. There is a small section of Delaware adopted by the Cherokee at the end of the Cherokee Section. 2). Within each tribe, cards are arranged by the following categories: Citizens by Blood, Citizens by Marriage, New Born Citizens by Blood, Minor Citizens by Blood, Freedmen, New Born Freedmen, and Minor Freedmen. 3). Within each of these enrollment categories there are three kinds of cards: "Straight" cards for persons whose applications were approved; "D" cards for persons whose applications were doubtful; and "R" cards for persons whose applications were rejected. Persons listed on the "D" cards were subsequently transferred to the approved cards or to the "R" cards depending on the Commission's decision.
Note: Except for some Cherokee applications, there is no index to the D and R cards, see P2089, Index to Cherokee Rejected and Doubtful Commission Applications, 1899–1904."
More Records Relating to the Five Civilized Tribes at the National Archives at Fort Worth.
The National Archives at Fort Worth, Texas, contains a large amount of material pertaining to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Indians, also known as the Five Civilized Tribes. These records include financial, land, and school records, many of which may be of interest to genealogists.
Administrative Records of the Muskogee Area Office, 1835–1957
The Muskogee Area Office was responsible for administering the Bureau of Indian Affair's business with the Five Civilized Tribes. Although not established until 1948, the records of the Muskogee Area Office contain documents created by its predecessor offices including tribal administrative offices dating from 1835, the Union Agency, and the Five Civilized Tribes Agency. The records include:
- Administrative files
- Allotment records and other records pertaining to land transactions
- Land plats
- Tribal enrollment records / census rolls
- Case files on payment, payroll, or annuity
- Case files on individual Native Americans
- Lawsuits, probate case files and related records
- Records documenting the activities of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes (the Dawes Commission)
Administrative Records of District Offices, 1907–1953
The Bureau of Indian Affairs created several district offices in 1908 to investigate the conduct of guardians in charge of the estates of minors and to advise allottees having restricted lands of their legal rights. These district offices were located in Ardmore, Durant, Hugo and McAlester for the Choctaw and Chickasaw; Okmulgee for the Creek; Vinita for the Cherokee; and Wewoka for the Seminole. The records typically contain case files for individual Native Americans.
Records of Indian Schools
The National Archives at Fort Worth also contains records of several schools for Native Americans that may be of interest to genealogists. This includes Muskogee Area Office Schools, including the Mekasukey Academy (Seminole), the Jones and Wheelock Academies (Choctaw), the Euchee Boarding School (Creek), Carter Seminary (Chickasaw), and the Eufaula and Sequoyah Schools (Cherokee). The National Archives at Fort Worth also holds records from the Chilocco Indian School.
- Schools in the National Archives Catalog.
- List of BIA Schools by state
Additional resources on the National Archives web site:
- Online Tutorial for Genealogists and Family Historians: The Dawes Rolls
- Dawes Commission and the Enrollment of the Creeks, an article from Prologue
- Index to the Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory (Dawes)
- About Census Records
- About Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940
- American Indians in the Federal Decennial Census, 1790-1930
- Native American Records at the National Archives
About the Dawes Commission
An act of Congress approved March 3, 1893, established a commission to negotiate agreements with the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Cherokee Indian tribes. The commission became known as the Dawes Commission, after its chairman Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts. The commission's mission was to divide tribal land into plots which were then divided among the members of the tribe. As part of this process, the Commission either accepted or rejected applicants for tribal membership based on whether the tribal government had previously recognized the applicant as a member of the tribe and other legal requirements. Applicants were categorized as Citizens by Blood, Citizens by Marriage, Minor Citizens by Blood, New Born Citizens by Blood, Freedmen (African Americans formerly enslaved by tribal members), New Born Freedmen, and Minor Freedmen.
