Native American Genealogy

Dawes Commission Index, (overturned) 1896 **Ancestry.com** This is an index to over 14,000 records of individuals in the Five Civilized Tribes that applied for citizenship under the Act of 1896. The Five Civilized Tribes include the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and the Seminole. Each record includes the individual's name tribe, and case number. This compilation, in effect an Indian census, was also used as the basis for the allotment of tribal lands to individual Indians.

Dawes Commission Index, 1898-1914 ** Ancestry.com** Commonly called the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, the Dawes Commission was appointed by President Grover Cleveland in 1893. In return for abolishing their tribal governments and recognizing state and federal laws, tribe members of the Five Civilized Tribes - the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole - were given a share of common property. This database indexes the original applications for tribal enrollments under the act of June 28, 1898. It also indexes documents such as birth and death affidavits, marriage licenses, and decisions and orders of the Commission.

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