Dawes Rolls and the Five Civilized Tribes

The Dawes Rolls — formally the Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes — represent one of the most important and most misunderstood genealogical resources for researchers tracing ancestry in Indian Territory.

Compiled between 1898 and 1914 under the authority of the Dawes Commission, the rolls were created to identify all citizens of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations for the purpose of allotting tribal lands in severalty — a process that effectively dismantled the communal land system and opened Indian Territory to statehood as Oklahoma in 1907.

The rolls are searchable by name through the National Archives and through Ancestry.com. But finding a name is only the beginning. The true genealogical value lies in the enrollment jackets — the supporting documentation filed with each application — which often contain family testimony, prior roll citations, birth dates, and relationship statements that appear nowhere else.

What the rolls contain

Each entry includes the enrollee's name, roll number, age at enrollment, and blood quantum designation. The rolls are divided into categories: citizens by blood, citizens by intermarriage, freedmen (formerly enslaved people of tribal citizens), and Delaware and Shawnee adopted citizens.

The blood quantum designations were assigned by the commission — often inaccurately and contentiously — and should not be taken as definitive statements of ancestry. Many families disputed their designations, and those disputes are documented in the enrollment jackets.

Research strategy

Begin with the online index to locate the roll number, then order the enrollment jacket from the National Archives in Fort Worth (which holds the Five Civilized Tribes records). The jacket will often reveal the names of parents, siblings, and spouses not captured in the final roll entry itself.

Cross-reference against the earlier Dawes Census Cards and the rejected applications — families who applied and were denied are equally valuable for establishing relationships and proving descent from tribal citizens.