This series of transcriptions from the records of the Dawes Commission concerns files of persons claiming entitlement to a portion of the Cherokee tribal lands (under the Dawes Act) in 1906, based on the intermarriage of a Cherokee and a white person. In all, nearly 4,000 individuals made application on this basis; however, the Commission of the Five Civilized Tribes affirmed a mere 286 as entitled Intermarried Whites, far fewer than the numbers of Intermarried appearing on the rolls of the Choctaw and Chickasaw. The reason for the disparity rested with the strictness of Cherokee tribal laws governing citizenship, established in 1877 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in November 1906. Moreover, the Cherokee were also particularly mindful of the importance of protecting their tribal allotment within the Oklahoma Territory from unscrupulous individuals who might claim acreage under false pretenses.
