Native American - Dawes Roll Index: Seminole, Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 1907, 1914 ftp://ftp.us-census.org/pub/usgenweb/census/-na/5c-tribes/dawes-index/ ===================================================================== Transcribed and proofread by Rebecca Ramsey and submitted to The USGenWeb Census Project http://www.us-census.org/ ===================================================================== Seminole Roll - Indians by blood -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are over 3000 names on the Seminole Roll. This is a work in progress and your patience is appreciated. Eventually it will be alphabetically indexed. I have transcribed the information as it was shown and it has been painstakingly re-read for errors. Rebecca Ramsey - okcosemino@usgennet.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transcribed from microfilm entitled: National Archives of United States - 1934 Microcopy No. T-529-3 Roll No. 3 Five Civilized Tribes Indian Territory Seminole Roll -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Letter: Commissioners: Henry L. Dawes, ?ams, Bixby, (portion of an ink stamp over the first letter making it unreadable) Thomas B. Needles, C.R. Breckinridge ----- Alison L. Aylesworth Secretary Department of the Interior, Commisssion to the Five Civilized Tribes Muskogee, Indian Territory, June 5th, 1901 The Commission of Indian Affairs. Sir:- I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of May 29, 1901, in which the attention of the Commission is called to a lack of uniformity in spelling names found upon the Seminole roll, the absence of sur-names in certain instances, and to page reference instead of number reference in cases 1678 and 1894. I would respectfully state in response to your inquiry that the Commission did not undertake to have the members of the tribe revise the spelling of their names in order to secure uniformity in the roll. A large proportion of the present generation of Seminoles has attained a limited education in the schools of the Nation and, while the tribal rolls were taken as a basis, it was believed that the identification of parties could best be secured by spelling their names as they were accustomed to spell and write them. The variations noted from the standpoint of an English speaking people do not apply to the Seminole Indians, or the members by blood of the other tribes in Indian Territory. Many apparent variations have some significance with the Indians and the pronunciation varies with the spelling. For instance Alecky is interpreted to mean little Aleck and Williamsee to mean little William. The proper English spelling of Wiley could be Wyley and of Saley would be Celia. While the census card were intended for the grouping of families it was necessary to include in many families the step-children, grandchildren and wards of the head of the family with whom they resided and in whose care and custody they were found to be. This accounts for the fact that some cards contains one or more persons have a certain surname while other persons on the same card are of given surnames. It is a well known fact that many Indian women continue after marriage to use their maiden names and some of these in appearing before the Commission have refused to permit their enrollment under the surnames of their husbands. In other instances, objection was made to giving an illegitimate child the name of its alleged father and in numerous cases it was insisted upon by applicants and tribal officers that certain parties had no surname and would never be identified with a surname was arbitrarily added to the given name by which they had always been known. The reference to page 23 in case number 1578 and to page 22 in case number 1894 are accounted for by the fact that the names appearing upon the tribal roll for the year 1895 were not numbered as were the names upon the 1897 tribal roll and the only references to said roll which could be given were the pages upon which the names were found. The duplicate roll, to which reference is made by your office, was retained by the Commission at the time the original was forwarded to the Department for approval to avoid the possibility of the loss of both rolls through theft, wreckage or conflagration. As soon as the triplicate and quadruplicate copies have been certified to as correct the duplicate may also be forwarded if the Department so desires. Respectfully, (signature unreadable) probably ?ams, Bixby Acting Chairman. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Department of the Interior, Received Jan 2, 1901 No. 6 Indian Territory Division Department of the Interior Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes We, the undersigned Commissioners to the Five Civilized Tribes, hereby certify that the within is a true and correct roll of Seminole Indians and Seminole Freedmen living on the thirty-first day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and that the same has been made in accordance with the provisions of Section 21, Act of June 28, 1898, (30 Stats., 495), and the agreement between the United State and the Seminole Tribe of Indians of October 7, 1898, ratified by the General Council of the Seminole Nation December 14, 1899, and by the Congress of the United States June 2, 1900, (Public No. 135). Dated at Muskogee, Indian Territory, this fifteenth day of December, A.D. 1900. Signature of Henry L. Dawes (unreadable signature) probably ?ams, Bixby Signature of Thomas B. Needles Signature of Clifton Breckinridge Commissioners to the Five Civilized Tribes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Explanatory: The within roll was begun, and practically complete, by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes in July 1898, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress of June 28, 1897 on which the names of the members of the tribe were classified according to the fourteen bands into which the Seminole tribe is divided. Children born subsequent to the making of the tribal roll, and then living, are designed "N.B." (Newborn), the tribal enrollment number corresponding to that of the mother on the 1897 tribal roll. In August 1900 after the ratification by Congress of the agreement of October 7, 1899, between the United States and the Seminole Tribe of Indians, the Commission enrolled children born subsequent to July 1898, who were living December 31, 1899. It will thus be seen that the ages given for those having a tribal enrollment number are their ages in July 1898, and for those not having a tribal enrollment number are their ages in August 1900. Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes (signature unreadable) probably ?ams, Bixby Acting Chairman. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., april 2, 1901 Approved: Signature of Thos. Ryan Acting Secretary -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following "Memo" appears at the bottom of the Roll: Ages appearing on this schedule are shown as of August 1, 1914, except those of persons who died prior to said date, in which cases the ages are shown as of date of death. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------