The Dawes Rolls

CD for sale ! "The Dawes Application Rolls for the five civilized tribes". Indispensable tool for Eastern Native American genealogy !

These Rolls were taken on the Cherokee reservation in 1900.  The only ‘official’ documents that exist are the records taken by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, from the people that were born on the reservation.  The Cherokee Constitution also states that “ any adult male that leaves the Cherokee Nation will be stripped of his citizenship, with no rights to return except by petition...”  Less than half of the Cherokees living on or near the reservation had their names on the Dawes Rolls.  Click here to see an example of the rolls.

There were many reasons for this. The United States Government has been trying unsuccessfully to register Native American Indians for over a hundred years. The infamous Dawes Act of 1887 was the first such effort on a large-scale. The purported aim of the Act was to protect Indian property rights during the Oklahoma Land Rush. By registering, Indians were told, they would be allotted 160 acres of land per family in advance of the Land Rush and thus be restituted for 100 years of genocide against them.

The purpose of the Dawes Act, ostensibly to protect Indian welfare, was viewed with suspicion by many Indians hurt by government's clumsy relocation efforts of the past. Indians who had refused to submit to previous relocations refused to register on the Dawes Rolls for fear that they would be caught and punished.

The Dawes Act abolished tribal claims to land provided in the Treaty of 1850 (138 million acres).  The Act reallocated all of the Indian land into ¼ of a ‘section’ (150 acres) per ‘qualified’ family; to very person over 18, 1/8 of a section (75 acres), to all orphans under 18, 1/8 of a section.

The Dawes Act also required all persons over ½ blood quantum, to be ‘assigned’ a white overseer to manage the land and all legal affairs, as a person of ½ blood quantum was ‘incapable’ of managing his own affairs. Greed and corruption often led to the overseer obtaining title to the land in a few brutal years.

To get on the Dawes Rolls, Native Americans had to "anglicize" their names. ‘Rolling Thunder’ thus became Ron Thomas and so forth.  In order to ‘qualify’ a person’s parents had to have been registered on the Treaty Roll of 1850, and the applicant had to produce ‘proof’ of his parents registration numbers. If your grandparents were on the Treaty Roll, but your parents had died, moved, refused to change their names, or refused to sign, you were ’denied’ registration.

In order for an Intermarried White to be placed on the Dawes Rolls, they had to be married prior to 1875, and attend two or three interviews with the Indian Commission, with copies of their original marriage license, issued by the Cherokee Nation.

By limiting ‘qualified’ recipients of ‘free’ land, the government effectively ‘stole’ nearly 100 million acres, which was sold at huge profits during the Land Rush. It was found in Oklahoma, that Indian held land, which totaled 138 million acres in 1887 at the time the Dawes Act was signed into law, had been reduced to 47 million acres of land by 1934.

The US government passed a law that receded the original land of the Cherokee back to the Cherokees.  The Supreme Court upheld this ruling, but President Andrew Jackson refused to acknowledge the authority of the law.  In 1930, the US government passed another law to grant the Cherokee lump-sum payments and individual land grants to the surviving members of the Cherokee Nation.  Up until this time, the US government had honored the Cherokee Constitution, which forbade individual ownership or sale of land.  All of the land belonged to the Cherokee Nation.

 The net effect of the Dawes Rolls, was to take a census and to divide up all of the Cherokee lands to the individual members.  The Dawes Rolls were supported by the Oklahoma Land Commission so that the entire Oklahoma Territory would be opened to white settlers during the Great Oklahoma Land Rush.  As soon as the Cherokees got their name on the Rolls, they were being made offers for ‘their land’.  Some of these offers were gang-land tactics, “sell your land, or be killed, then your children will be made the same offer”.  Many Cherokees refused to have their names on these Rolls, but many others were being ‘bought’ to put the names of their relatives on the lists so their lands could be ‘legally stolen’ before the titles were ever issued.  As their lives were in danger, many Cherokees left the reservation and melted into the US population.

Dawes workers, 1902

Picture from the Cherokee National Archives

In 1934 the Dawes Act, and the Cherokee Nation was abolished. In 1954, the Cherokee Nation, in order to reestablish itself as a Federally Recognized Tribe, was required to amend it’s constitution. The amendments, forced upon them by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, required that any person that voluntarily left the Cherokee Nation would forfeit their Cherokee citizenship.

Tribal membership was restricted to those people that could ‘prove’ direct descent from a person who was ‘accepted’ on the Final Dawes Rolls.

The Federal Government, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, decides who is an Indian, based on ‘acceptable proof’. This ‘proof’ is limited to State issued birth and death certificates, showing your direct descent from a Dawes Roll registrant. Since states did not begin collecting this data until 1925, many of our ancestors were never issued ‘official’ state approved birth or death certificates. In addition, birth certificates were not ‘required’ until after World War II, when the Social Security Act was enforced.

CD for sale ! "The Dawes Application Rolls for the five civilized tribes". Indispensable tool for Eastern Native American genealogy !

Dawes Case Files

The Dawes Roll info was taken between 1902 and 1906, and the ages of the people was based on the census date. I have calculated the year of birth from this information and grouped the Vann's by family unit, in descending order of age. If you find a 'possible' ancestor here, you will need to order a copy of the census card from the National Archives. The original records are housed in the National Archives - Southwest Region, Fort Worth, TX.

To request copies of a Dawes case file from the National Archives, indicate that the case is a Dawes Enrollment Jacket. You must provide the name of the enrollee, the tribe, the category ("by blood", "minor", "rejected", "freedmen," etc.), enrollment number (if applicable), and census card number. (Ie. John Brown, Cherokee By-Blood, Roll# 12345, census card # 6789 ) Requests without this information can not be processed. Copies cost $10 per census card number up to 20 pages and $0.50 per page thereafter. Payment can be made by check, money order, or credit card. Do not send cash. Payment must be exact, so credit card payments generally are the most convenient.  Please double-check the current fees on their site Please make your requests in writing. Requests are accepted via fax, or regular mail, archives@ftworth.nara.gov. An appointment is strongly recommended to view these case files. Within the United States, overnight delivery is available for an extra $4.00. Please state in your request that you would like this feature and provide your street address and phone number. Please NOTE: No P.O. Box numbers are accepted. General Information National Archives--Southwest Region (Fort Worth) Building 1, Dock 1 501 West Felix Street Fort Worth, TX 76115 Phone: 817-334-5525 Fax: 817-334-5621 E-mail:archives@ftworth.nara.gov

CD for sale ! "The Dawes Application Rolls for the five civilized tribes". Indispensable tool for Eastern Native American genealogy !

Social Security

The Social Security Administration has a microfilmed copy of every individual's original Social Security application (known as the SS-5), as well as claims files. These documents contain additional information not available in the SSDI such as birth place, maiden name, and parents’ names. (Porter 1999)

More specifically, The application form (SS-5) contains the following information:
Full name
Full name at birth (including maiden name)
Present mailing address
Age at last birthday
Date of birth
Place of birth (city, county, state)
Father's full name "regardless of whether living or
dead"
Mother's full name, including maiden name, "regardless
of whether living or dead"
Sex and race
Ever applied for SS number/Railroad Retirement before?
Yes/No
Current employer's name and address
Date signed
Applicant's signature

Sample letter to Social Security Request Information (SS-5)