The Dawes Rolls (or Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, or Dawes Commission of Final Rolls) were created by the United States Dawes Commission. The commission was authorized by United States Congress in 1893 to execute the General Allotment Act of 1887.

Traditionally, the land in these tribal communities had been held communally. To allot the communal lands, citizens of the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole) were to be enumerated and registered by the US government. These counts also included the Freedmen – formerly enslaved African-Americans who had been emancipated after the American Civil War, and their descendants.

The rolls were used to assign allotments to heads of household and to provide an equitable division of all monies obtained from sales of surplus lands. These rolls became known as the Dawes Rolls. When word got out that people could get land, many non-Natives appeared at the offices and falsely claimed to be Native. Most of these false claimants claimed to be Cherokee. Family myths still persist of "hiding in the hills", or of being "rejected from the rolls", or "refusing to enroll" when the reason for having not been enrolled is that the applicants were simply not Native American.

Enumeration and enrollment

The Dawes Commission went to the individual tribes to obtain the membership lists, but it took a series of attempts to gain anything approaching an accurate count. In 1898, Congress passed the Curtis Act, which provided that a new roll would be taken and supersede all previous rolls. Difficulties in enumerating the population included the forced migrations of the period as well as the American Civil War. Additionally, non-Native census takers introduced the idea of Blood Quantum, a concept previously foreign to the tribal communities. Those recording this percentage of ancestry wrote down an estimation, based on physical appearance and personal opinion if the individual was present. Refusing to be enumerated, and even fleeing, would mean warrants being issued for the person's arrest; they could then be treated brutally and imprisoned in the process of being enrolled by force. but some of them were later arrested and forcibly enrolled, while others were enrolled on their behalf by people in their communities. Additionally all individuals on the Census Roll of 1896 were enrolled without notification to the parties involved. The only real choice to avoid enumeration entirely meant completely leaving one's community and assimilating.

See also

  • 1896 Applications for Enrollment, Five Tribes (Overturned)
  • Baker Roll
  • Blood quantum laws
  • Dawes Act
  • Guion Miller Roll
  • Native American Freedmen
  • Cherokee Freedmen
  • Chickasaw Freedmen
  • Choctaw Freedmen
  • Muscogee Freedmen
  • Native American tribal rolls
  • Sooner
  • United Keetoowah Band Base Roll

Notes

References

  • Russell, Steve (2002). "Apples are the Color of Blood". Critical Sociology Vol. 28, 1, 2002, p. 65
  • Search the Dawes Rolls, 1898–1914, Oklahoma Historical Society