How To Find Native American Roll Number

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Between 1898 and 1914, every living member of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw and Creek tribes was compulsorily registered by the Dawes Commission. The resulting list, which contains the names of over 100,000 people, is used by many as a jumping-off point for discovering their tribal ancestry. A digital version of the Dawes Rolls, also known as the Final Rolls, is maintained past the National Archives. You can perform a unproblematic Cherokee roll search online.

Log Onto the Dawes Rolls Index

Navigate to the National Athenaeum web page titled "Digitized Index to the Terminal Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the V Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory (Dawes)." Scroll downwardly until you lot discover the Cherokee section. At that place are 258 dissever pages in this section, which are categorized "Cherokee by Blood," "Cherokees by Intermarriage," "Minor Cherokees" and then on. Your ancestor's category depends on his female parent'southward race. For example, a person with a Cherokee female parent volition be listed under "Cherokee by Birth." Apply this to guide your search.

Find Your Antecedent's Proper noun

Click on a link in the Cherokee category you lot're searching. You'll see that information technology brings upward a single page of the rolls, and that enrollees are listed alphabetically by name. For example, clicking the first link under "Cherokee Freedmen" will take you to a page containing the names Adams through to Alberty. Click through several links until y'all notice the correct folio. Write down the curlicue number listed alongside your ancestor's proper noun.

Examine the Final Rolls

Now you lot have the Cherokee roll number, you tin use this to search the Final Rolls. This volition give you additional information such every bit your ancestor's historic period at the time of registration, census card number and blood degree. To search the rolls, navigate to the National Archives Catalog. Enter "300321" into the search field; this is the numerical identifier for the Final Dawes Rolls. Alternatively, type "The Concluding Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the 5 Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 1907" into the search box. Scroll through the pages until yous discover the Cherokee section. The person you're looking for will be listed numerically against the roll number y'all obtained from the index.

Unlisted Tribal Members

If y'all can't find your ancestor, it's probably considering she was not live when the Dawes Commission was registering Cherokees, or she found a way to escape registration. Fortunately, a listing in the Dawes Rolls is not the only proof of tribal membership. You tin check the "Census of Intruders," or non-Indians living on tribal country, compiled by Cherokees in 1893, or continue your search by scrolling through the links to Native American websites on the National Archives "Additional Resources" page.