Native American genealogy

Native American Genealogy

By Connie Lenzen

A column written for the 7 June 2006 issue of the Vancouver Columbian.

A friend owns a Western art gallery. She says, "I get people in my gallery all of the time trying to figure out which Native American tribe they come from. Some are trying to find how much Native blood they have. Do you know whom they can call to help them?"

The quick answer is that there is no one to call. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) does not do genealogical research for people, and they say, "Many people think that the BIA retrieves genealogical information from a massive national Indian registry or comprehensive computer database. This is not true."

“When establishing descent from an Indian tribe for membership and enrollment purposes, the individual must provide genealogical documentation. The documentation must prove that the individual lineally descends from an ancestor who was a member of the federally recognized tribe from which the individual claims descent.”

Since most people do not know the name of the tribe or the Indian ancestor, the first step is to begin with the present. Find all the information that you can about your parents. Then do the same for your grandparents and your great-grandparents. Write down their vital statistics, such as birth date and place, marriage date and place, and death date and place.

If you do not conduct research every day, it is easy to forget how to do it. It is back-to-school time to brush up on research skills.

Join your local genealogical society. Most of them offer classes in doing genealogical research.

Obtain a genealogy guidebook, such as The Idiot's Guide to Genealogy.

Go to your local library and check out books about Indians. Learn which tribes lived in the areas where your ancestors lived.

The University of Washington has an online "American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Digital Collection." It contains over 2,300 photographs and 7,700 pages of text relating to Northwest Indians.

At some point in your research, you may identify the tribal affiliation of your ancestors. This is when you begin to do your research in Indian records. For instance, there are special Indian censuses. Most have been microfilmed and are available through the LDS Family History Centers. They are also available on Ancestry.com.

Resources:

American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Digital Collection, http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/index.html.

Bureau of Indian Affairs, www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html.

Online Native American Indian Genealogy Records & Databases, www.genealogybranches.com/nativeamericans.html.

Native American Genealogy, www.accessgenealogy.com/native.

Native American links on Cyndi’s List, www.cyndislist.com/native.htm.