American
Indian Records
Submitted
by HOST GFS Kevin@aol.com
What's
Available in American Indian
Records?
Well,
the good news is that a lot of
records exist of Native American
family history. The bad news is
that most of the records end in
the early 1800's. Before that
date you generally have a tough
time in your research. The
reason for that is the rapid
western expansion of the American
nation and its insatiable desire
to strip the Indians of their
lands. Because of that desire,
and a desire to make it show some
semblance of "legality", many
lists were accumulated recording
lists of Indians agreeing to give
up their lands or the lands of
their fellow tribe members in
exchange for money, guns,
blankets, plows, livestock and
other forms of aid. There are
also a lot of rolls listing
records of payments for various
reasons by the government to
tribal members. Although many of
the documents are records based
on the tragic losses of
homelands, today they serve as
gold mines for people researching
Indian ancestry. Most of the
over 500 Indian nations in North
America passed their history and
culture down orally through
tribal members possessing great
memories which makes it hard to
do genealogical research. So,
the written records of the
Europeans and Euro-Americans have
proven extremely useful in
today's research.
Examples
of useful records are treaties,
land records, the Dawes Rolls of
the Five Civilized Tribes
(Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw,
Choctaw, & Seminole Nations),
the Guion Miller Roll (Eastern
Band of Cherokee), and the Indian
Census Records of all the
federally recognizes
reservations.
A
good place for beginners to start
their research is The Native
American Genealogy Website,
operated by Host GFS BB, at
http://members.aol.com/bbbenge/front.html.
That site gives general
information on beginning your
search for American Indian
ancestors and it has hundreds of
links to tribal websites and
other genealogy websites. It
also has articles and papers of
interest to American Indian
genealogy and culture.
Another
good beginning resource is the
National Archives search engine
NAIL, located at
http://www.nara.gov. Click on
the Research Area, then click on
the links to the National
Archives Information Locator
(NAIL), or go directly to
http://www.nara.gov/nara/nail.html.
Then search on your surname and
tribe (e.g. search on "Standing
Eagle" and "Lakota" or "Standing
Eagle" and "Sioux." Try various
combinations and see what pops
up.
For
more personalized help, please
feel free to drop in the American
Indian Genealogy chat session on
Sundays from 10-11 pm Eastern
time (7-8 pm Pacific) in the
Genealogy Forum's Golden Gates
chat room. Some nations are
easier to research than others,
but we will do our best to steer
you towards your family's
history.
Host
GFS Kevin
©
2002 GFNEWS, a monthly
publication of the Golden Gate
Genealogy Forum, Inc. of
Franklin, MA.
(America Online Keyword: roots.)
The Editors
welcome your ideas and
articles,
success stories, favorite
genealogy research tips, comments
and suggestions.
©
2002 Graphics
By
Carol,
All Rights Reserved
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