The Dawes Rolls
(Final Rolls of the Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes
in Indian Territory)
Step 2: Check to see if the Person's Census Card is Described Online
On the Census or Enrollment cards, you will find the person's name, along with all members living in their household, their tribal enrollment, their parent's names and tribal affiliation, and often notes with additional information. For Freedmen, you'll get the parent's names, parent's owners, name of tribe and band listed. Only a portion are described online.
- Step 1: Dawes Rolls Introduction
- Step 2: Check to see if the person's Census Card is described online
- Step 3: Use the Index to the Final Rolls online
- Step 4: Look up the Person in the Final Rolls online
- Step 5: What You Can Do Next?
-
Print all 5 steps out (PDF format)
Step 2: Check to see if the Person's Census Card (Enrollment) is described online
Note: Only a portion of the census cards are described online, and none for the Choctaw. If you are looking for a Choctaw, you may still want to do the online search as described below, since there may be records online for an 1896 application. (The 1896 applications were declared invalid by the Dawes Commission, but they may still prove helpful to your research. Copies are available from Fort Worth.)
By first
doing a simple name search for Dawes census (enrollment) cards in the Archival Research Catalog (ARC), you
may be able to bypass a search for your ancestor in the Final Rolls Index and Final Rolls
(Steps 3 and 4).
The goal of using the Final Rolls Index and Final Rolls is to obtain the person's
census card number, as that will then lead you to additional records.
Since many of the census card descriptions are available online, a successful result
from ARC will immediately provide you with the
person's census card number, and you may be able to go straight to
Step 5: What You Can Do Next!
Please note that only a small number of the enrollment cards described online have
digital copies attached to them.
- Go to the ARC main page
http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/ - Click the yellow Search button.
- On the next screen, fill in the boxes as follows:
- In the Keyword box, enter either the person's name, or alternatively, enter "Enrollment and " (without quotes) and the person's last name
- Select 100 where it says "Limit Results to".
- Hit "Go".
Result 1: You find an Enrollment for Census Card description
For a small number of people, a Census card (Enrollment) description will result,
possibly with a digital image attached.
If you find your person here, write down their census card number as well as the other
information you find listed, and you can jump to
Step 5: What You Can Do Next! You will learn
how to contact Fort Worth for copies, and what additional resources are available.
Result 2: Says "1896 Citizenship Application".
For another small number of people, after you type in the person's name in ARC,
you will get a result that says "1896 Citizenship Application."
If you see this, that means that they applied to the Dawes Commission during the
initial 1896 application process which was later declared invalid.
If this is what you find, please write down the name of the person and their tribe,
and contact the National Archives in Fort Worth
at (817) 831-5620. They will send
you a copy of the 1896 application.
Result 3: Not found
For the majority of people, you will either get
a screen that says "No search results have been found in response to your search criteria",
or else you will find census cards for people with similar names, not the one you are looking for.
In this case, you should proceed to
Step 3: Use the Index to the Final Rolls online.
To illustrate the above, we will search for 3 individuals in ARC who we believe
were listed in the Final Rolls.
Example 1:
First, we look for Ambrose Crain.- We go to the ARC main page
http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/ - Click the yellow Search button.
- In the ARC box, we type in Ambrose Crain,
- Select 100 where it says "Limit Results to",
Your screen should look like this:
- We hit "Go", and this is the is the result we see:
As you can see, the result is the census card.
- Then click on the link below the image, that in this case says
"Enrollment for Seminole Census Card 8", and
you will see the details for this record.
You may want to print this out. An example
showing some of the details is below:
-
Next, just beneath the image, click on the "All Images" link.
-
In this case, we get a choice of 2 cards. We will check them both to see which one is relevant.
-
When you click on the "Large Image" links to see a close-up of the cards, you will see that
only the first card contains Ambrose Crain,
who we've been following in this example. (The second card has the same census card number,
but is in the Seminole Freedmen category and for a different person.)
The first card, where you find Ambrose Crain, looks like the following:
- Since these results provide you immediately with the census (enrollment) card and number in the
righthand corner, you
do not need to look for the person in the Final Rolls Index and Final Rolls lists.
You should print the card out or copy down all the information you find,
especially the Census Card number.
-
You are ready to jump straight to
Step 5: What You Can Do Next, to learn how to
contact Fort Worth to order copies, and more.
Example 2:
Second, we will do a search for Winnie Buckhammon.- We go to the ARC main page
http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/ - Click the yellow Search button.
- In the ARC box, we type in Winnie Buckhammon
- Select 100 where it says "Limit Results to",
Your screen should look like this:
- We hit "Go", and this is the is the result we see:
There is nothing here regarding an Enrollment or Census card. In fact, if you see "1896 Citizenship Application" as the result, this means that the person applied to the Dawes Commission under the initial 1896 application process, which was later declared invalid.
-
Click on Winnie's name for more details, specifically to find out her tribe.
-
To receive a copy of the 1896 application to the Dawes Commission,
write
down the person's name and tribe which you find listed here, and
contact the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas.
See Step 5: What You Can Do Next.
You can also continue on to Step 3, and look for the person in the Final Rolls Index, since this ARC catalog online does not have everyone included who was enrolled on the Dawes Rolls. Proceed to Step 3: Use the Index to the Final Rolls online
Example 3:
As a final example, we will look for Napoleon Ainsworth.- Go to the ARC main page
http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/
- Click the yellow Search button.
- In the ARC box, we type in Napoleon Ainsworth
- Select 100 where it says "Limit Results to",
Your screen should look like this:
- We hit "Go", and we see the following screen.
- As expected, there is no census card online for Napoleon Ainsworth.
Very few of these enrollment cards have been scanned and digitized into ARC,
and none for Choctaw.
So since we do not find his census card here,
we proceed to searching for him in the Final Rolls index.
Step 3: Use the Index to the Final Rolls online.
Next Step:
If you found the census card of the person you are looking for, proceed to
Step 5: What You Can Do Next.
If you did not find the person's card, continue on to
Step 3: Use the Index to the Final Rolls online.
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