Where Do I Go to Find Out if I Have Choctaw Ancestry?

Start with what your family already knows. Write down your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents with their birth, marriage and death dates and places. The Choctaw Nation Genealogy Department asks for a family pedigree chart like this, and it has a printable chart, brochures and how-to videos on its website.

Then send the Genealogy Assistance Request. You need an ancestor who was alive sometime from 1898 to 1906 and born in 1906 or earlier. The department looks for that person on the Dawes Rolls and tells you where to look for the records you need. For questions or an appointment (not research), call 580-634-0721.

You can also search the rolls yourself. The Oklahoma Historical Society has an online Dawes Rolls search for the Five Tribes, including Choctaw, by name or roll number, and it links to enrollment application packets.

The Choctaw Nation constitution says members are Choctaws by blood whose names are on the final rolls, and their direct descendants. Your ancestor has to be listed with both a roll number and a blood quantum. If the record shows a roll number but no blood quantum, that ancestor doesn't count as Choctaw by blood.

There is no minimum blood quantum, so a great-great-grandparent on the rolls is enough if you can show each generation in between. You can't be enrolled in another tribe at the same time.

Mississippi Choctaws who moved to Indian Territory in 1902 and 1903 are on the Dawes Rolls, so their descendants qualify. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is a separate tribe with its own rules.

Fill out the Chahta Achvffa New Tribal Membership Application online. You can also mail your application and documents to Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Tribal Membership Department, PO Box 1210, Durant, OK 74702, or take them to the office at 1802 Chukka Hina in Durant.

The most important document is your certified birth certificate showing your parents' names. A clear color copy of the front and back is fine. If nobody in your line is already a member, you also need birth records or other official papers that connect each person back to the Dawes enrollee. Death certificates, census records and Dawes records can help.

Applications are reviewed in the order they come in, and the office contacts you by phone, email or through Chahta Achvffa if something is missing. Any originals you send are returned by certified mail.

A CDIB (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) shows that you descend from someone on the Dawes Rolls. Tribal membership makes you a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, and that's what the Nation recommends. Members qualify for Choctaw Nation services for Native Americans and tribal members, and most programs accept federally recognized tribal membership.

The Choctaw Nation posts a CDIB vs. Tribal Membership comparison on its membership page. If you aren't sure which one a job or program wants, call Tribal Membership at 580-634-0654 and ask.

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