ancestors?

Question:

How do I find and prove my Native American heritage / ancestors?

pretty sure I have family with sioux and cherokee.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I do have experience with tracing Cherokee. That's not always easy. The only primary source documents available for tracing and "proving" our Cherokee heritage are the rolls. The challenge is to trace our families to one or more of these rolls. The National Archives carries the records of the five civilized tribes. (Cherokee, Choctoaw, Creek, Chicasaw, and Seminole) Here are some resources that they carry.

The Dawes Rolls
Final Rolls, often called Dawes Rolls, are lists of people accepted between 1898 and 1914 by the Dawes Commission as members of these five civilized Indian tribes - Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole. Learn how to search and use the Dawes Rolls online to research your Native American ancestors.

1880 Cherokee Census
A transcription taken from LDS Microfilm #989204 of the 1880 Cherokee Census index. (You can order this through your local Latter Day Saints research center in your town. )

1896 Census Applications
An index of people who applied for enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes under the Act of 1896. Covers Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek.

Baker Roll, 1924
The final roll of the Eastern Cherokee, prepared by United States Agent Fred A. Baker, pursuant to an act of the 68th Congress on June 4, 1924.

Kern Clifton Rolls
An easy to use index to online digital copies of the Kern-Clifton index of Cherokee Freedmen.

Old Settlers Roll
This census, taken in 1851, lists the Cherokee who moved to Indian Territory in Oklahoma prior to December 1835. This covers about 1/3 of the Cherokee present in the area in 1851.

Indian Bounty Land Applications
Learn about available indexes and abstracts of Indian Bounty Land applications from the nineteenth century, and ways to use the records in your Native American research. An article by Mary Frances Morrow from Prologue the quarterly of the National Archives & Records Administration.

The best ones are the detailed surname listings for the two "final" rolls -- Dawes and Baker:
Results include: name, age, blood quantum, and roll number.
Names are organized in an easy to read alphabetical listing.

There is an online index to the final Dawes rolls at the national archives website. Here is a page that explains them:

http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/tutori...

and here is where you go to access the index.

http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/nat...
and here is the index to the Guion Miller Roll

http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/nat...

You can order online reproductions of Eastern Cherokee application records, 1906-1909 Here is the link

http://www.archives.gov/research/order/o...

I hope this helps. Blessings to you in your search.