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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.[1]
Traditionally, the land in these tribal communities had been held communally.[2] 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.[2] 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",[3] 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.[2][4]
- ^ "Our Documents - Dawes Act (1887)". www.ourdocuments.gov. 9 April 2021.
- ^ a b c Angie Debo, And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940; new edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984), p.39 ISBN 0-691-04615-8.
- ^ Cornsilk, David (10 July 2015). "An Open Letter to Defenders of Andrea Smith: Clearing Up Misconceptions about Cherokee Identification". IndianCountryToday.com. Archived from the original on 2015-07-15. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
- ^ Daniel F. Littlefield; James W. Parins (2011). Encyclopedia of American Indian Removal, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. Note: The fact many tried to understandably avoid this, plus the fact that there were multiple waves of departure on the Trail of Tears, each less and less "voluntary", has led to the myth that "enrollment" was somehow optional. If they refused, warrants were issued and people were hunted down by soldiers. They had to sign up or face criminal charges.