The Guion Miller Roll is a roll created by the US government between 1906 and 1911 to document Eastern Cherokee people, for the purposes of distributing money paid as restitution for the violation of treaties.
History
In 1902, Congress authorized the U.S. Court of Claims to began hearing cases related to the violation of
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 ...
treaties. The Eastern Cherokee filed three claims alleging that the US government had violated the 1835 and 1846 Cherokee treaties. The Court of Claims consolidated the three complaints into one case and eventually, on 18 May 1905, the court ruled in favor of the tribe. Eligible tribal citizens were awarded over $1 million. The roll was compiled by Interior Department Special Commissioner Guion Miller. Miller used previous applications and rolls in order to verify the tribal citizenship of applicants to the roll.
About 90,000 individuals applied for the Guion Miller Roll. Only 30,254 individuals, about one-third of all applicants, were enrolled as entitled to funds.
The
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
and the
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma ( or , abbreviated United Keetoowah Band or UKB) is a federally recognized tribe of Cherokee Native Americans headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. According to the UKB website, its memb ...
(UKB) use the Guion Miller Roll and the Dawes Rolls in order to determine eligibility for tribal citizenship. The UKB also uses the 1949
United Keetoowah Band Base Roll. The
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee language, Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States, federally recognized Indian Tribe, ...
only uses the
Baker Roll The Baker Roll of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was created by the Eastern Cherokee Enrolling Commission after it was commissioned by the United States Congress on June 4, 1924. The purpose of the Baker Roll was to collect and compile data fr ...
to determine eligibility for tribal citizenship.
The digitized Guion Miller Roll is available on Fold3, a website owned by
Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...
.
See also
*
1896 Applications for Enrollment, Five Tribes (Overturned) The 1896 Applications for Enrollment, Five Tribes (Overturned) were applications in 1896 for citizenship in the Five Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole. Authorized by the Dawes Commission, the applications were ...
*
Blood quantum laws
Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws that define Native Americans in the United States status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the federal government and state governments as a way to establish ...
*
Cherokee descent
Individuals with some degree of documented Cherokee descent who do not meet the criteria for Cherokee tribal citizenship may describe themselves as "being of Cherokee descent" or as "being a Cherokee descendant". These terms are also used by non-Na ...
*
Baker Roll The Baker Roll of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was created by the Eastern Cherokee Enrolling Commission after it was commissioned by the United States Congress on June 4, 1924. The purpose of the Baker Roll was to collect and compile data fr ...
*
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 ...
*
Hester Roll
The Hester Roll is a Cherokee census roll that was taken in 1883 by Joseph G. Hester. The census listed new citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, whether by birth or by adoption.
Other Cherokee census rolls include:
* 1835 Census o ...
*
Native American identity in the United States
Native American identity in the United States is a community identity, determined by the tribal nation the individual or group belongs to. While it is common for non-Natives to consider it a racial or ethnic identity, for Native Americans in th ...
*
Native American tribal rolls Native American tribal rolls are records created by the US federal government or by federally recognized American Indian tribes that document citizens of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and bands, including Freedmen. The Bureau of Indian A ...
*
Pretendian
Pretendian (portmanteau of ''pretend'' and ''Indian'') is a pejorative colloquialism describing a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity by professing to be a citizen of a Native American or First Nation tribal nation, or to be des ...
*
United Keetoowah Band Base Roll
References
External links
Cherokee Rolls: Guion Miller Roll All Things Cherokee
US, Guion Miller Roll, 1908-1910 Fold3
{{Native American rights
Cherokee tribal rolls
Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)
Cherokee Nation
Legal history of the United States
Native American history of North Carolina
Native American law
Politics and race in the United States
Race legislation in the United States
Restitution
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians