As my husband's 4th great grandfather was a full blooded Cherokee, I thought I would
throw my 2 cents worth in here.
I have several Native American links on the sweet owen website. "All Things
Cherokee" is a very good site.
We have not done any of the DNA testing as it just wasn't necessary.
I thought though that I would toss in some facts for researching with the Native American
circles that many of you might not know.
There are several Indian Rolls available for locating your ancestors--
The Guion Miller Roll
The Dawes Roll
Not everyone was included on these rolls. Just because your ancestor was not on these
rolls means nothing. They may not have applied or were rejected for one reason or another.
Descendants could also apply.
The basis for these lists were claims made for lands taken from the Indians by the US.
For the basic rules in researching the Native American, these things should be
remembered--
1. Native Americans were most normally NOT included on census records (unless they were
married to a white person)
2. Native Americans were not allowed to be married within a church or even by a minister
3. Native Americans were not allowed to be buried in a regular or "christian"
cemetery. All too frequently the graves are unmarked.
4. As someone else stated they were sometimes listed as Mulatto or even as Black.
5. Most of the time, Native Americans were not allowed to purchase land, so needless to
say they didn't pay taxes.
In case anyone is keeping track--
No census records, no land records, no tax records, no marriage records, no burial
records, no church records.
I have found over the years that researching the Native Americans is the most aggravating
research there is and takes a tremendous amount of time and patience, so be prepared.
Debbie Jennings
Lest anyone misconstrue Debbie's list of rules for Native American research
to be all encompassing, they may apply to Indiana but they do not apply
everywhere. There were many Indian censuses done by the federal, state and
tribal governments. Some were enumerated as part of the regular census and
some were separate.
Debbie Jennings wrote:
"For the basic rules in researching the Native American, these things should
be remembered--
1. Native Americans were most normally NOT included on census records
(unless they were married to a white person)
2. Native Americans were not allowed to be married within a church or even
by a minister
3. Native Americans were not allowed to be buried in a regular or
"christian" cemetery. All too frequently the graves are unmarked.
4. As someone else stated they were sometimes listed as Mulatto or even as
Black.
5. Most of the time, Native Americans were not allowed to purchase land, so
needless to say they didn't pay taxes."
I should add one caveat. Most of us do not have "Indian blood" coursing
through our veins, regardless of what Uncle Willie told you.