# Dawes Rolls

Part of a series on :
Native Americans
in the United States :
History
Paleo-Indians
Lithic stage
Archaic period in the Americas
Formative stage
Classic stage
Post-Classic stage
Woodland period
Age of Discovery
European colonization of the Americas
Population history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Genocide
Paper genocide
Slavery
Slavery in the United States
Partus sequitur ventrem
Indian Removal Act
Trail of Tears
Native American slave ownership
Indian Territory
American Civil War
Dawes Rolls
Cultural assimilation of Native Americans
Racism against Native Americans
Indian Appropriations Act
Racial Integrity Act
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
Jim Crow laws
Blood quantum laws
Native Americans and World War II
American Indian boarding schools
Civil rights movement
Red Power movement
Native American rights
Alcohol and Native Americans
Native American temperance activists :
Culture
Mississippian culture
Adena culture
Hohokam culture
Iroquois culture
Art
Food
Music
Pow wow
Dance
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Film
Indigenous Peoples' Day
Literature
Fashion
Neighborhoods
Health
Tribal sovereignty :
Wars
Beaver Wars
Anglo-Powhatan Wars
Pequot War
Kieft's War
Peach Tree War
Esopus Wars
King Philip's War
Tuscarora War
Yamasee War
Dummer's War
Pontiac's War
Lord Dunmore's War
American Revolutionary War
Cherokee–American wars
Northwest Indian War
War of 1812
Creek War
Arikara War
Seminole Wars / Second Seminole War
Osage Indian War
American Civil War
Texas–Indian wars (1836–1877) / Comanche Wars (1836–1877) / Antelope Hills expedition (1858) / Comanche Campaign (1867–1875) / Red River War (1874–1875) / Buffalo Hunters' War (1876–1877)
Cayuse War
Apache Wars (1849–1924) / Jicarilla War (1849–1855) / Chiricahua Wars (1860–1886) / Tonto War (1871–1875) / Victorio's War (1879–1880) / Geronimo's War (1881–1886) / Post 1887 Apache Wars period (1887–1924)
Yuma War
Ute Wars(1850–1923) / Battle at Fort Utah (1850) / Walker War (1853–1854) / Tintic War (1856) / Black Hawk War (1865–1872) / White River War (1879) / Ute War (1887) / Bluff War (1914–1915) / Bluff Skirmish (1921)
Posey War (1923)
Sioux Wars (1854–1891) / First Sioux War (1854-1856) / Dakota War (1862) / Colorado War (1863–1865) / Powder River War (1865) / Red Cloud's War (1866–1868) / Great Sioux War (1876–1877) / Northern Cheyenne Exodus (1878-1879) / Ghost Dance War (1890–1891)
Rogue River Wars (1855–1856)
Yakima War (1855–1858) / Puget Sound War (1855–1856) / Coeur d'Alene War (1858)
Mohave War(1858–1859)
Navajo Wars (1849–1866)
Paiute War(1860)
Yavapai Wars(1861–1875)
Snake War (1864–1869)
Hualapai War (1865–1870)
Modoc War (1872–1873)
Nez Perce War (1877)
Bannock War (1878)
Crow War (1887)
Bannock Uprising (1895)
Yaqui Uprising (1896)
Battle of Sugar Point (1898)
Crazy Snake Rebellion (1909)
Last Massacre (1911)
Battle of Kelley Creek (1911)
Battle of Bear Valley (1918) :
Political movements
Civil rights movement
Self-determination
Women in politics
Nationalism
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Red Power Movement
Occupation of Alcatraz
Trail of Broken Treaties
Occupation of Wounded Knee
MMIW (Red handprint) :
Religion
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
Christianity
Eagle Feather law
Mormonism
Traditional religions
Native American Church
Longhouse Religion
Sun Dance
Keetoowah Society
Midewiwin
Wabunowin
Wocekiye :
Groups
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
National Congress of American Indians
National Indian Youth Council (NIYC)
Women of All Red Nations (WARN)
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) :
Ethnic subdivisions
Black Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Louisiana Creole :
Languages
English
American English
Native American languages :
Demographics
Neighborhoods
Societal statistics
Reservations
Tribal disenrollment
Reservation poverty :
Geography
by region
Great Basin
Northeastern Woodlands
Northwest Plateau
Pacific Northwest
The Great Plains
Southeastern Woodlands
Southwest
by state
Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Florida
Hawaii
Iowa
Maryland
Michigan
Nebraska
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Oregon
Virginia
Wisconsin :
Lists
Native Americans
artists
actors
war leaders
musicians
congressional politicians
Native American Medal of Honor recipients
List of federally recognized tribes
List of federally recognized tribes by state
List of Indian reservations in the United States :
vte :
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. With the establishment of the Dawes Commission, the ruling was made by the colonial agents to divide the land into parcels and institute a system of individual ownership in accordance with US laws, overriding the treaty and tribal laws of the region. 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.
Tribal citizens were listed under several categories:
   * Citizen by Blood
   ** New Born Citizen by Blood
   ** Minor Citizens by Blood
   * Citizen by Marriage
   * Freedmen (persons formerly enslaved by Native Americans or adopted by the Cherokee tribe)
   ** New Born Freedmen
   ** Minor Freedmen
   * Delaware Indians (those adopted by the Cherokee tribe were enrolled as a separate group within the Cherokee)
More than 250,000 people applied for membership, and the Dawes Commission enrolled just over 100,000. Most were rejected because they were non-Natives who showed up demanding land, but could not prove any connection to an existing Native community, such as naming living relatives or speaking the Native language. Overrun with prospective claimants, the commission was overwhelmed and instituted guidelines:
   It rejected the unconscionable claim that a white person once admitted into the tribe by marriage to an Indian could confer citizenship upon any white person whom he might afterwards marry and upon his white descendants. It also uncovered a great mass of nauseous evidence, and rejected a large number of claims upon the ground they had been advanced through perjury and forgery.
An act of Congress on April 26, 1906 closed the rolls on March 5, 1907. An additional 312 persons were enrolled under an act approved August 1, 1914.
While some initially refused to be enumerated, almost all were later arrested and enrolled against their will; enrollment was not a matter of "choice". 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. Still, due to understandable distrust of the government, there were those who tried to avoid enumeration. Notable among those who resisted were Muscogee Chitto Harjo (Crazy Snake), and Cherokee Redbird Smith. But both Harjo and Smith were eventually coerced into enrolling. According to Cherokee professor Steve Russell, some Natives hiding in the Cookson Hills never enrolled, 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. Since that period, the tribes have relied on the Dawes Rolls as part of the membership qualification process, using them as records of citizens at a particular time, and requiring new members to document direct descent from a person or persons on these rolls. Courts have upheld this rule even when it has been proven that a brother or sister of an ancestor was listed on the rolls but not the direct ancestor himself/herself.
Another issue on the Dawes Rolls are people termed "Five-Dollar Indians". Some white people bribed government officials to obtain land allotments, but this was not as widespread as some would believe.
Gregory Smithers, associate professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University stated, "These were opportunistic white men who wanted access to land or food rations. ... These were people who were more than happy to exploit the Dawes Commission – and government agents, for $5, were willing to turn a blind eye to the graft and corruption." For the small minority that managed this, this fraudulent enrollment may have earned white people potential benefits for themselves and their descendants, but also could have subjected them to further removal, relocation or incarceration. There were also land runs during this era, and other methods for white people to obtain land. Most of the white people on the Dawes Rolls are noted as included due to marrying a member of the tribe and having Indian children.
The Dawes Rolls, though recognized as flawed, are still essential to the citizenship process of the Nations that include them in their laws. The federal government uses them in determining blood-quantum status of individuals for Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood.