ONEOFMANYFEATHERS'
Searching For Your Roots
How much Indian are you?
How much Indian are you? This question was asked of a group of American Indian Children at Andersen Elementary School in Minneapolis. Their answers were quite interesting and very disturbing. In this circle of black, brown and blondish hair - of black, brown, green, blue and hazel eyes, of wiry, curly, kinky and straight hair, they were very percent-of-blood oriented. From 15/32 to 1/4 to 1/2 they called out their individual percents - that is until they began to laugh. Yes, it is ridiculous, especially when one child was asked to point to half of him that was Indian and the half that wasn't... The Native American, the Indian, the Navajo - call him what you will - knows he is an Indian because of the mystic tie to the land, the dim memory of his people's literature that has been denied him, the awareness of his relationship to Sakoiatisan, Manitou, Huaca, Wakan Tanka (depending on his being Iroquois, Algonquian, Inca or Sioux) somehow all manifest themselves within him and constantly call him back to his ancestors. "My cultural identity makes me what I am. It is my beliefs that make me Indian." ...An individual's sacred regard for language, his concept of the Creation and his desire to live in harmony with the natural world need be applied when seeking to define an Indian. LaDoona Harris: "I can't define the Indian anymore than you can define what you are.
Different government agencies define him by amount of blood. I had a Comanche Mother and an Irish father. But I am Comanche. I'm not Irish, and I'm not Indian first. I'm Comanche first, Indian second. When the Comanche took in someone, he became Comanche, He wasn't part this, part that. He was all Comanche or he wasn't Comanche at all. Blood runs the heart. The heart knows what it is." Elizabeth Hallmark, an Ojibwe: "Just because an individual has a tribal enrollment number entitling him to certain services, does not, in my mind, define this person as an Indian. It is the heart of this person that speaks to me. That's where my Indianess is - in my heart."
John Fire-Lame Deer associated Indianess with the heart also. His beliefs in the concepts symbolized in the pipe identified him as an Indian. He realized that to truly understand what it meant to be an Indian was to understand the Pipe. Even as an old man he was still learning. To be Indian is a way of life, a looking within and feeling a part of all life, a allegiance to, and love for, this earth. Historically, we did not judge individuals by the color of their eyes or the color of their hair, but how they conducted and lived their lives. To debase our identity by reducing us to percents of blood is another version of genocide... The last time some of us were required to show papers for proof of blood was when we wanted to breed our dogs or horses.
The confusion of attempting to define what is Indian will persist in governmental bureaucracies, but will not be shared by many American Indians who know what they are. For many of us, to be Indian is not a heritage granted by legislation, percent of blood or Bureaucratic studies, or even by a community's consideration. It comes from the heart and the heart knows what it is... The term 'Naive American' is widely recognized as meaning a person who is of a tribe or people indigenous to the United States. It is most frequently applied to American Indians of the 48 coterminous states, but it also includes Alaska's three ethnological groups - Indians, Eskimos (Inuit), and Aleuts. Native Hawaiians are also considered to be Native Americans."
What is an Indian?
"Each Indian tribe has eligibility requirements for enrollment...Although these requirements determine tribal membership, they do not necessarily determine who is Indian for other purposes. To be considered an Indian for federal purposes, an individual must have some Indian. blood. A non-Indian who is adopted into an Indian tribe is not an Indian under federal law. However, under certain federal laws small amounts of Indian blood, together with recognition as an Indian by the Indian community, will qualify a person as an Indian....The fact that the federal government does not recognize a person as an Indian does not prevent a tribe from considering that person an Indian for tribal purposes. Similarly, lack of tribal membership does not prevent a person from being recognized as an Indian under most federal laws."
The Dawes Rolls
An act of Congress dated March 3, 1893 provided for a commission to negotiate with the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole Nations of Oklahoma in order to dissolve their tribal governments and to allot their land to individual citizens. Allotment was advocated as a means of further civilizing Indians by converting them from a communal land system to a system of individual ownership. All of the excess land was then available for homesteading by non-Indians. The proceeds from the sale of land and other tribal funds were often held in trust by the Secretary of War, later by the Secretary of Interior and commonly were invested in federal and state bonds and other securities.
Records are available concerning the purchase and sale of securities and the status of trust funds during this time period. These records are found in the Financial Division of the Indian Records. Congress passed the Curtis Act in June, 1898 which provided that a new roll would supersede all previous rolls. Citizens of the Tribes were enrolled under the following categories:
Blood Marriage Minors (born during the enrollment) Freedmen (former slaves) Delawares (adopted into the Cherokee Nation) Some of the requirements for final enrollment were: The establishment of legal residence in the Nations of Oklahoma during the enrollment period of 1899-1906. applicants for final enrollment could not have died prior to 1 Sept. 1902; or, in the case of minor children, could not have been born after 4 March 1906, and could not have died prior to that date.
The Rolls of Freedmen (former slaves owned by the Nations prior to the Civil War) were limited to those persons and their descendants who were actual residents of one of the Nations on 11 August 1866, or who returned and established such residence on or before 11 Feb 1867. By the final enrollment day 4 March 1907, 101,211 individuals were certified to share in the properties of the Five Civilized Tribes.
The final number of individuals certified as Cherokee citizens were: Full Bloods: 6,601 Part Blood: 29,975 (included 197 Delawares) Intermarried: 286 (granted to whites married prior to 1877)Freedmen: 4,923Total: 41,785
To begin your research: You need to know in which Nation your ancestor lived. If they were of mixed blood, for example, such as Choctaw/Cherokee, they may have been living in the Choctaw Nation. You would look under the Choctaw section of the Dawes Roll. If you are looking for a female ancestor and are not certain about a marriage date, be sure to check under the maiden name and the married name.
Remember: The federal government relied on earlier rolls to determine eligibility. Not all American Indians wanted to be registered.
There may be a discrepancy regarding your ancestor's quantum blood as listed on the Dawes Roll.
Minor children and restricted Indians (those of more than one-half degree quantum blood) had their personal and financial affairs controlled by the government agents. In order to avoid these controls, many Indians reported their quantum blood to be less than it was. Not all Cherokees were in the right time or place to be included in earlier rolls.
What the 1900 IndianCensus Will Tell You
All members of the family English and Indian name of each person listed on the Census. The relationship each family member has with the head-of-house. Month, year of birth and age. Number of marriages. How long they have been married. How many children she has had and how many are still alive. Birth places, parents birth places. Tribe, parents' tribe What degree of white blood. Whether either spouse has plural spouses. Whether they lived in a fixed or movable dwelling. Whether they rented or owned the property. Occupation or ration Indian (dependent upon federal support). How long have they been unemployed. Whether they can read, write or speak English. Additional information available on Census. Microfilms are available through the nearest LDS Church Family History Center.
1900 Federal Indian Census Offers A Wealth of Information
Who is an Indian?
No single definition of "Indian" exists - socially, administratively, legislatively or judicially. Currently in the United States 10 to 20 million people may have Indian ancestry, but only a small percentage identify themselves as being primarily Indian. The Bureau of the Census counts anyone an Indian who declares himself or herself to be an Indian. In 1990 the Census figures showed there were 1,959,234 American Indians and Alaska Natives living in the United States (1,878,285 American Indians, 57,152 Eskimos, and 23,797 Aleuts). This is a 37.9 percent increase over the 1980 recorded total of 1,420,000. The increase is attributed to improved census taking and more self-identification during the 1990 count. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, no single Federal or tribal criterion establishes a person's identity as an Indian. Government agencies use differing criteria to determine who is an Indian eligible to participate in their programs. Tribes also have varying eligibility criteria for membership. To determine what the criteria might be for agencies or Tribes, one must contact them directly. To be eligible for Bureau of Indian Affairs services, an Indian must
(1) be a member of a Tribe recognized by the Federal Government, (2) one-half or more Indian blood of tribes indigenous to the United States (25 USC 479) ; or (3) must, for some purposes, be of one-fourth or more Indian ancestry. By legislative and administrative decision, the Aleuts, Eskimos and Indians of Alaska are eligible for BIA services. Most of the BIA's services and programs, however, are limited to Indians living on or near Indian reservations. "There is no universally accepted definition of the term 'Indian.'...Although there is one ethnological definition of Indian, there are many legal definitions...Many federal laws use the word "Indian' without defining it. This allows federal agencies to decide who is an Indian under those laws. Some agencies have been accused of defining Indian too narrowly, thereby depriving people of benefits that Congress intended them to receive. When Congress has not defined the term, courts have used a two-part test to determine who is an Indian. First, the person must have some Indian blood, that is, some identifiable Indian ancestry. Second, the Indian community must recognize this person as an Indian...The Census Bureau takes a simple approach to these problems. The bureau lists every person as an Indian who claims to be one." Stephen L. Pevar, The Rights of Indians and Tribes: The Basic American Civil Liberties Union Guide to Indian and Tribal Rights, 1992.
Remember