Editing Dawes Rolls (section)

{{short description|1893 registry of citizens living on US tribal lands}}
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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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=50|title=Our Documents - Dawes Act (1887)|website=www.ourdocuments.gov|date=9 April 2021 }}</ref>

Traditionally, the land in these tribal communities had been held communally.<ref name=Debo39/> 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.<ref name="Debo39">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}}.</ref> To allot the communal lands, citizens of the [[Five Civilized Tribes|Five Tribes]] ([[Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)|Cherokee]], [[Chickasaw]], [[Choctaw]], [[Creek (people)|Creek]], and [[Seminole]]) were to be enumerated and registered by the US government. These counts also included the [[Freedmen (ethnic group)|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",<ref name=BloodMyths>{{cite web |last1=Cornsilk |first1=David | author-link= David Cornsilk |title= An Open Letter to Defenders of Andrea Smith: Clearing Up Misconceptions about Cherokee Identification |url=http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/07/10/open-letter-defenders-andrea-smith-clearing-misconceptions-about-cherokee-identification |website=IndianCountryToday.com |access-date=29 May 2019 |language=en |date=10 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715021145/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/07/10/open-letter-defenders-andrea-smith-clearing-misconceptions-about-cherokee-identification |archive-date=2015-07-15 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Debo39"/><ref name=Encyclopedia>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of American Indian Removal, Volume 1 |author1= Daniel F. Littlefield |author2=James W. Parins |year=2011 |publisher=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.</ref>