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Please note that, we do not have a simple way to help you research your own or another’s Native American ancestry. There is no single list of everyone of Native American heritage that we can consult. Rather, records of Native Americans in our holdings are scattered throughout multiple series, record groups, and even NARA facilities.
When embarking on Native American genealogy, please note that the records in the custody of NARA often only detail those living on the reservations or being administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. If an ancestor was Native American and left the reservation or did not have interaction with the United States Government as such, they will not be recorded in NARA’s records and tracing their genealogy may be difficult.
Some good places to start:
If your ancestors were documented members of a Native American tribe they may be listed in the series titled Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 (M595) in the Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Record Group 75). For more information about these non-digitized records, please email the National Archives at Washington, DC - Textual Reference (RDT1) at archives1reference@nara.gov.
They may also appear in the series Applications for Enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898 - 1914 (also known as the Dawes Rolls) in Record Group 75. Most of these records have been digitized and are available using the National Archives Catalog. We suggest that you review the NARA web page for Dawes Rolls as an overview of how to research that resource.
There is also the Eastern Cherokee Applications (NARA Microfilm Publication M1104, Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909). We have recently uploaded digitized versions of these records on our online catalog that researchers can view on our online catalog: Enrollment Cards, 1898–1914 & Eastern Cherokee Applications, August 29, 1906–May 26, 1909) - (Enrollment cards were created by the Dawes Commission to record information about family groups within the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations. They list family relationships, degree of native blood, age, tribal enrollment, and other data useful to establishing family connections and Native American ancestry.)
