The 1896 Applications for Enrollment, Five Tribes (Overturned) were applications in 1896 for citizenship in the Five Tribes: the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

Muscogee (Creek) The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsSeminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

. Authorized by the Dawes Commission, the applications were disputed by the Five Tribes as fraudulent and ultimately overturned by the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...

. The overturned 1896 applications have been digitized and are available online on multiple websites, including

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and the

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About

The

Dawes Commission The American Dawes Commission, named for its first chairman Henry L. Dawes, was authorized under a rider to an Indian Office appropriation bill, March 3, 1893. Its purpose was to convince the Five Civilized Tribes to agree to cede tribal title ...

authorized applications for tribal enrollment in the Five Tribes on March 3, 1893, in an attempt to convince the tribes to cede Indian lands to the federal government. The 1896 Applications for Enrollment were commissioned at the insistence of the Dawes Commission, not at the insistence of the Five Tribes themselves. Some of the families and individuals who applied were enrolled by US federal courts, which had no jurisdiction to determine tribal citizenship. This resulted in the inclusion of many non-American Indian individuals, who were fraudulent intruders within the tribes. The Five Tribes rejected the authority of federal courts in

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

and fought against the tribal enrollment of these individuals. Following lengthy deliberations, the

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

sided with the Five Tribes and the 1896 Applications for Enrollment were overturned. Although the applications were rejected due to inaccurate data, the rejected applicants were not given individual notification that their applications had been rejected. Because the 1896 applications were ruled invalid, the Dawes Commission started all over again two years later with new tribal rolls called the

Dawes Rolls 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 exe ...

. The rolls were primarily created between 1898 and 1907, with a small number of applicants approved in 1914. The Dawes Rolls were authorized by the

Curtis Act of 1898 The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States Dawes Act; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory: the Choctaw, Chickasa ...

. If rejected applicants from 1896 still desired tribal citizenship, they had to apply again on the Dawes Rolls. Digitized records relating to the overturned 1896 applications are available on multiple websites, including

and the

. Prior to the digitization of the rejected applications, they were available on microfilm at the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

via the microfilm publication M1650.

References

External links

Cherokee Rolls: 1896 Applications for Enrollment (Overturned)
AllThingsCherokee.com
Dawes Commission Index (overturned), 1896

Record Of Applications Under The Act Of 1896, 1896–1897
National Archives Catalog
U.S., Native American Applications for Enrollment in Five Civilized Tribes (overturned), 1896

{{Native American topics, collapsed 1896 in the United States Cherokee Nation (1794–1907) Cherokee tribal rolls Chickasaw Choctaw Native American tribal rolls Muscogee Seminole