Cherokee Indians answer please?

Question

How to enroll in a federally recognized tribe? I live in Iowa and I am 1/8 Cherokee Indian. Could I get enrolled? And If i could how could I go about enrolling? And could I mark that I am Native American and White/Caucasion on applications or forms?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Rolls

Have you checked to see if your great-grandparents are listed on the Dawes Rolls?? The Dawes Commission was set up to negotiate with the 5 "Civilized Tribes"--Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole-- to convince them to agree to a land  allotment plan and dissolution of their reservation system.

     Tribal citizens were enrolled under several categories:

1.Citizen by Blood

2. New Born Citizen by Blood

3. Minor Citizens by Blood

4.Citizen by Marriage

5.Freedmen (former black slaves of Indians)

6. New Born Freedmen

7.Minor Freedmen

8. Delaware Indians (those adopted by the Cherokee tribe were enrolled as a separate group within the Cherokee)

     More that 250,000 people applied for membership, and the Dawes Commission enrolled just over 100,000. An act of Congress on April 26, 1906, closed the rolls on March 5, 1907.During this process, the Indian nations were stripped of their communally-held national lands, and the land was divided up into single lots and given to individual members of the nation. However, to prove you were a member of a tribe, you had to declare membership in ONE and only ONE tribe to a national registry known as the Rolls. Many people did not sign up to these rolls because they feared government persecution if their ethnicity was formally entered into the system. Furthermore, people often had mixed blood sharing several tribes, so 1/4 Cherokee and 1/4 Creek had to  register simply as '1/4 Cherokee,' thereby formally losing part of their heritage by fiat of government.

http://www.westerncherokee.net/faqs.htm

Western Cherokee of Arkansas & Missouri:

When submitting your application for Tribal Enrollment, please include a copy of your birth certificate; birth and death certificates for your ancestors, your application completed front and back (make sure it is legible, illegible applications will be returned). The application fee is $60.00 per applicant.

     To find Birth and Death Certificates, please call the State Department of Vital Statistics of that particular person.

We DO accept old bible records.

     If you are already a member of another tribe then you can not enroll into the Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas & Missouri, it is illegal to be enrolled into more than one tribe.  If you wish to enroll into the Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas & Missouri you must first contact your current tribe orally and acquire a written statement of departure from them.  Once you have contacted said tribe, you must send in the letter of departure from that tribe to us to place on file.  You then may enroll into the Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas & Missouri by completing the application process.

Once you have mailed your application, take note of the date in which you mailed it.  The application process can take up to 90 days.  You will be notified by mail if an error or more information is needed.

     There is a membership fee.  The fee is $10.00 per person above the age of 18 in each household.  This fee is used to help the office operate efficiently.  This fee is only paid once a year. The Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas & Missouri.  issues ONLY  GREEN-colored membership cards (you are NOT a member if your membership card is any other color).

     There is a $10 charge for a replacement card for a lost card.  What you must do is send a letter of request to the office, include in the letter your birth date, social security number and enrollment number for verification.

     For all inquiries regarding your blood quantum, please contact the Chief (Lola Smith Scholl), who is the principal chief of the tribe.

     To print out the front and back of the application, you need Adobe Reader 8. The application site is http://www.westerncherokee.net/applicati...

Contact by email: For customer support or assistance please fill out the online form below.

We will respond to you within 24 hours, during regular business hours. All email correspondence is completely confidential.

(I think this is the correct tribe for you to contact. They said another tribe calls themselves the Western Cherokee, but they are NOT affiliated with them in any way. Good luck.)

Answer 2

The Western Cherokee of Arkansas and Missouri is NOT a Federally Recognized American Indian Tribe.

The other Western Cherokee tribe is NOT a Federally Recognized American Indian Tribe also.

Answer 3

If you are seeking assistance with college funds, grants, housing etc, most will not recognize less than half blood.  Either your mother is full blooded, and your father other, or both are full blooded, or no recognizes your blood line as to tribe rights and issues.

Answer 4

First there are 3 Federally Recognized Cherokee Tribes or Nations. For the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma you MUST be able to trace your direct lineage back to someone on the Dawes Roll, for the Eastern Band of Cherokee you MUST be able to trace your direct lineage back to someone on the Baker Roll and have a blood quantum of at least 12.5% or 1/8. For the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma you will have to contact the tribe.

Each of the Cherokee Nations have different requirements for application. The information is on their respective websites.

http://www.cherokee.org/ for the Cherokee Nation of Ok

http://www.cherokee-nc.com/ for the Eastern Band of Cherokee and

http://www.unitedkeetoowahband.org/ for the United Keetoowah.

Legally you may check the Native American box only if you are a member of a Federally Recognized Tribe or Nation

Answer 5

I am 1/8 Cherokee as well and have had a terrible time getting tribal stuff figured out.   look on www.cherokee.org for information but the main thing is that you have to be able to trace your ancestors back to a list of names called the Dawes Roll that was made in 1906.   I was always really interested in figuring out how to become a member but it seems to be very complicated to get the right records unless you already know your lineage and everything.  

Dont know if that helps any, but good luck!

Answer 6

moon child, if the great spirit wanted you to be one with the cherokee tribe, you would have been born into the womb of the cherokee society.  why do you wish, oh goat smeller, to be something that you are not?  i think you need to go on a journey far out in the wilderness and you will learn for yourself what you need to do to become a part of the cherokee tribe.  run, run like the wind.

Answer 7

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, today individuals of Cherokee ancestry fall into the following categories:

(1) Living persons who were listed on the final rolls of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (Dawes Commission Rolls) that were approved and descendants of these persons. These final rolls were closed in 1907.

(2) Individuals enrolled as members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina and their descendants who are eligible for enrollment with the Band.

(3) Persons on the list of members identified by a resolution dated April 19, 1949, and certified by the Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes Agency and their descendants who are eligible for enrollment with the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indian of Oklahoma.

(4) All other persons of Cherokee Indian ancestry.

You can get the enrollment forms, eligibility requirements and information for all four catagories at http://cherokeeregistry.com. If you don't qualify for one of the first three catagories, you can fill out a "Declaration of Cherokee Heritage" form there too.

You may not realize that in addition to the three federally recognized tribes, there are Cherokee tribes who are state recognized, and others who sought no recognition. Just because they are not "federally recognized" doesn't mean the members aren't real Cherokee.