Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
FINDING INDIAN HERITAGE
Rumors
abound that the United States Government offers business, educational and other kinds of grants to anyone who can prove Native American ancestry. While the Government does offer grants there are strings attached. The major
obstacle is one must usually prove an acceptable degree of descent from an ancestor who was listed on a tribal roll or census, such as, the Rolls of the Dawes Commission which was compiled between 1899 and 1906.
Once an ancestor is located on one of the rolls the applicant will have to apply for a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. One's degree of blood will be based on one's relationship to the ancestor found on the Dawes or
tribal rolls. Many of the tribal lists were created by United States Indian agents for a number of reasons usually as a mechanism to fulfill a treaty. Indian laws usually dictated that "when any citizen shall
remove with his effects out of the Nation and become a citizen of another government, all his rights and privileges as a citizen of the Nation shall cease". US Indian agents usually incorporated the Indian law concept in their
lists. Not finding an ancestor on one of the accepted lists does not mean one is not descended genetically from a Native American. It just means the researcher did not locate the ancestor on any of the accepted
lists. This means the ancestor was not considered a citizen of a given tribe by the Indian agent or tribal government when the rolls were compiled. It will probably also mean the researcher will not qualify for whatever grant
or loan they seek. In fact many people with Indian bloodlines will never prove citizenship in a tribe. Since most Native American records are arranged by tribe, researchers must know the tribal
affiliation of the ancestor to be able to find records attributed to a given tribe. To find the tribe one must study the history of the area where the ancestor lived and discover what tribes lived in the area. The researcher should
then seek out records on area tribes. Some of the earliest Native American rolls begin in the 1830's and concern members of the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and the Seminole. Houston's Clayton Library located at 5300 Caroline in the Museum District has a good collection of Native American censuses and rolls. In addition, there are two other facilities with major Native American
collections one should consult. The Archives and Manuscripts Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City has a website at
SHIPS AHOY!
Hosted by the Coastal Bend Genealogical Society in Corpus Christi Paula Perkins Parke
will present a day long seminar on Saturday September 8 titled Ships Ahoy! Parke's talks will feature topics concerning ship passenger lists, ports of departure and entry, immigration and naturalization and other items
referencing travel to America. For more information contact the society at P.O. Box 18131 Corpus Christi, TX 78480, call John Dillon at 361-991-5539 or email
SURFING THE INTERNET
Mic Barnette will lead a Surfing the Internet for Genealogy class at Houston Community College's 1681 Cartwright Missouri City campus. This class is a live three hour virtual tour of some of the best genealogical websites on the Internet. It will be held Wednesday September 5 from 1 to 4 P.M. For more information and to register, contact HCC at 281-835-5539.
NEWS FROM THE BOOKSHELF
Sharron Standifer Ashton a
genealogical researcher specializing in the records of the Five Civilized Tribes and sources for intruders and other residents of the Indian Territory has published the fourth volume of her ongoing series, Indians and Intruders.
The 120 page 8 1/2 X 11 softcover volume contains the following articles: The 1835 Valuations of Cherokee Improvements; Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation Roll, 1866; Choctaw Deaths, 1837-1854; The
Cherokee Advocate Abstracts, 1878; Chickasaw Nation records Book index 1837-1855: Abstracts from Our Brother in Red (A Methodist newspaper published at Muskogee), 1891; and Cherokee Claims, 1842.
The books are available from Ashton Books, 3812 Northwest Sterling, Norman, OK 73072. Each volume is priced at $20 plus shipping of $2.50 for the first book and $1.00 for each additional book.
In addition to the Indians and Intruders series, Ashton has published a Guide to Cherokee Indian Records Microfilm Collection. This book, too, is available from Ashton Books and is priced at $20 plus
postage. The Guide was compiled to assist researchers through the 129 rolls of microfilm concerning the Cherokee Indian records held by the Archives and Manuscripts Division of the Oklahoma Historical
Society. Resources in the Cherokee Collection include: Cherokee citizenship records; census, enrollment, district and supreme court records; land, permit and estate records; tribal council records, school
records; lists of intruders and other non-citizens; records on black slaves and freedmen and Civil War records. In addition the Guide describes other materials relating to Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee
Nation found in numerous other collections and facilities including those of historians and genealogists Grant Foreman and Emmett Starr.
