Whether you want to become an enrolled member of a
federally recognized tribe, verify a family tradition that you
descended from an American Indian, or just want to learn more about
your roots, researching your Native American family tree beings just
like any other genealogy research - with yourself.
Starting Your
Climb Up the Family Tree
Unless you have a large
collection of facts on your Indian ancestor, including names, dates,
and tribe, it is usually not helpful to begin your search in Indian
records. Learn everything that you can about your parents,
grandparents, and more distant ancestors, including ancestral names;
dates of birth, marriages, and death; and the places where your
ancestors were born, married, and died.
·
At Home
The first place to begin genealogical research is at home. Valuable
information can be found in family Bibles, newspaper clippings,
military certificates, birth and death certificates, marriage
licenses, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, backs of pictures and baby
books. Relatives, particularly older ones, are another good source
of information. Persons doing this research should visit or write
family members who may have the genealogical information that they
are seeking. Someone else in your family may also be working on a
family history.
·
On the local and state
level It is often useful to check
school, church, and county courthouse records for information.
Researchers should not limit the scope of their search to birth,
death and marriage records. Historical and genealogical information
can be found in other civil records at the county courthouse such as
deeds, wills, land or other property conveyances. Write to the
Bureau of Vital Statistics, usually in the state capital to request
copies of birth, death and marriage certificates, or divorce
decrees. Include the name of the individual, date and place of birth
and your relationship to that person. State governments did not keep
birth and death records until the turn of the century, about
1890-1915, so searches in state records for ancestors who were born
or died before that time may be limited.
·
In public libraries and
other repositories Visiting the
local library is a good starting point for gathering facts about
Indians and Indian tribes. A wealth of information exists concerning
the history of Indian tribes, tribal cultures, the historic tribal
territories, and the migration patterns. Most libraries also have
books on how to do genealogical research. The genealogical research
books give a good understanding of standard research techniques.
·
Researchers can
also contact genealogical organizations, historical societies, and
other private institutions. For example, the Family History Centers
are "branch offices" of the Family History Library of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). This private institution
contains a large collection of genealogical documents relating to
Indians that may be useful in research.
·
Family History
Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
35 North West Temple
Street,Salt
Lake City,
Utah,
84150-3400
Public phone
number: 801-240-2584 or 866-406-1830
FAX: 801-240-1794
E-mail:
Click here to send us an e-mail at fhl@ldsfs.net
Website: www.familysearch.org
Tracking Down the
Tribe
During the initial phase of your research, the goal, especially for
tribal membership purposes, is to establish and document the
relationships of Indian ancestors and to identify the Indian tribe
with which your ancestor may have been affiliated. If you're having
trouble finding clues to your ancestor's tribal affiliation, study
the localities in which your Indian ancestors were born and lived.
Comparing this with Indian tribes that historically resided in or
currently live in those geographical areas may help you to narrow
down the tribal possibilities. The
Tribal Leaders Directory (www.doi.gov/leaders.pdf)
published by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs lists all 562
federally recognized American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives in a
PDF document.
Next Step - National
Archives
Once you've identified the tribal affiliation of your Native
American ancestors, it is time to begin research in records about
American Indians. Because the U.S. federal government interacted frequently
with the Native American tribes and nations during the settlement of
the United States,
many useful records are available in repositories such as the
National Archives. The Native American collection at the National
Archives includes many of the records created by branches of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, including annual tribal census rolls,
lists relating to Indian removal, school records, estate records,
and claims and allotment records. Any American Indian who fought
with federal troops may have a record of veteran's benefits or
bounty land. For more information on the specific records held by
the National Archives, visit their
Native American Genealogy
(www.archives.gov/geneology/heritage/native-american/) guide or
check out "Guide to Records in the National Archives of the United
States Relating to American Indians," compiled by archivist Edward
E. Hill.
If you want to do your research in person,
most of the main tribal records are stored at the
National Archives Southwest Region in Fort Worth, Texas
(historical records dated from 1800s to the late
1900s – 501 West Felix Street, Building
1, 76115-3405).
Even more accessible, some of the most
popular of these records have been digitized by NARA and placed online for easy searching and
viewing in the
Archival Research Catalog (ARC) (www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/).
Online Native American records at NARA include:
- Index to the Final
(Dawes) Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes
- The Dawes Commission was organized in
1893 to accept applications for tribal enrollment between
1899 and 1907 from American Indians of the Five Civilized
Tribes who resided in the Indian Territory, which later
became the eastern portion of
Oklahoma. The Five Civilized Tribes
consist of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole and
Chickasaw Indians.
- There are several
places to get access to the Dawes rolls to see if your
ancestor is listed, here are three locations.
- Index to Applications Submitted for the
Eastern Cherokee Roll of 1909 (Guion-Miller Roll)
- Wallace Roll of Cherokee Freedmen in
Indian Territory, 1890
- Kern-Clifton Roll of Cherokee Freedmen,
January 16, 1867
- 1896 Citizenship Applications
U. S. National Archives and Records Administration
700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC
20408
866-272-6272
Bureau of Indian
Affairs
If your ancestors had land in trust or went through probate, the BIA
field offices in selected areas throughout the United States may have some records
concerning Indian ancestry. However, the BIA field offices do not
maintain current or historic records of all individuals who possess
some degree of Indian blood. The records the BIA holds are current
rather than historic tribal membership enrollment lists. These lists
(commonly called "rolls") do not have supporting documentation (such
as birth certificates) for each tribal member listed. The BIA
created these rolls while the BIA maintained tribal membership
rolls.
Other Contacts:
Bill Stafford
Louisiana
State
Archives
3851 Essen Lane
Baton Rouge,
LA
225-922-1208
Gerald Patout
Historic New Orleans Collections
410 Chartres Street
New Orleans,
LA 70130
504-598-7171
