Family group sheets, pedigree charts, and books of remembrance
Search the Card Catalog. From any page on Ancestry, click the Search tab and select Card Catalog. In the Keyword(s) field on the left side of the page, enter a search term and click Search. Use terms that align with your research and that may appear in the title or description of a database, such as “Native American,” “Seminole,” or “Cherokee,” for example.
Interview family members and ask whether they have any records. Take note of names, dates, places, and tribal affiliations.
Search family trees by clicking the Search tab and selecting Public Member Trees. To narrow your search results, try adding information one field at a time until you get results you can use.
Search the records below.
Resources
Indian Census Rolls: Use these census rolls to learn which tribe someone belonged to. Follow each family member recorded in the document to find more facts and clues. People are sometimes listed with two names: one in their language, and one in English.
In 1893, the United States Congress established the Dawes Commission, a group responsible for negotiating agreements with the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes. In 1898, the Dawes Commission began preparing tribal membership rolls, and they eventually oversaw applications for tribal citizenship. There are three Dawes Commission Indexes on Ancestry:
Oklahoma Historical Society: Become a member to receive regular email updates about their document collections.
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center: Indian Boarding Schools were established in 1885. Their lists usually included students' tribes and locations of birth. When Oklahoma Natives were sent to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, they were often sent to live on farms in the summer months, and farm records are included in this collection.
Google "Catholic Indian Mission [tribe name]" to find sites that list Catholic missions established among that tribe. Most missions kept records.
With the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, the United States forced many Native American tribes to move out of their native lands and settle west of the Mississippi. Look for maps that show where a tribe was at various points in time. Search for records along the routes, keeping in mind that Native Americans often encountered white colonizers along the way and sometimes intermarried. Some tribes (like the Navajo) did not keep records of names of their members who went on the “Long Walk,” which was similar to the Cherokee Trail of Tears and the Potawatomi Trail of Death.