This guide is designed to introduce you to books, databases, websites, and information related to Native American Genealogical Research. Studying family ancestors allows you to trace your lineage. By starting with yourself and working backwards you can explore how you came to be. Begin by talking with living relatives, the older the better so you can put together a pedigree chart. Go into the attic, closet, garage, look in the old shoe box or trunk and find the certificates, documents, letters, notes and pictures. Get names and places and dates. And then come visit us in Texana/Genealogy. We'll get you climbing onto the limbs of your family tree!
The information on this LibGuide was compiled with the help of Ānua (they, them, theirs) Tamōx Axtē, a member of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation and the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions. For more information, you can visit https://tappilam.org/.
There is a total of 584 federally-recognized tribal entities in the United States. Each is a sovereign state with their own laws, rules, and regulations. Each of these tribes/nations have their own unique cultures, languages, and histories, and thus their own set of records and resources. The Census records for 1900 and 1910 identify tribal affiliations, so this is a good place to start searching. For earlier records, you may find Native American ancestors who are listed as “mulatto,” not “Indian.”
Note: If you take a DNA test, it will NOT tell you what tribe you or your family is from. At the most, it could tell you if you potentially have indigenous roots, but nothing specific. If you have specific family members you want to research, look at where they are from and what tribe(s) live/d in that area. The databases below are great starting points.
Free with a library card or at any San Antonio Public Library:
This collection of more than 4,000 databases and two billion names through birth records, marriage records, death records, church records, censuses, immigration records, yearbooks, land records, military records, newspapers, obituaries, and more.
Fold3 Library Edition
The Fold3 has a Native American collection that feature documents, most never before available before on the Internet, relating to the Dawes Commission, census rolls, treaties, tribe applications, the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, historical newspapers, naturalization documents, and many more.
Free online database:
The Texana/Genealogy Department is a Reference Only Collection. The materials are not allowed to leave the department, however, copies of some of the books are available for check out in the circulating collection.
Beneath Sacred Ground by
Beneath Sacred Ground by Art Martínez de Vara documents the lives, struggles, and ethnogenesis of the residents of Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) through the vehicle of their burial records. This work includes a full transcription of the original Spanish records, dating from 1706 to 1782, as well as modern Spanish and English translations for each entry. The records are annotated to provide information not contained in the original manuscript, such as indigenous names, ethnonyms, family structures, compadrazgo relationships, social status and political offices held. These translated and annotated records provide new contexts and connections to understand the people of Mission San Antonio Valero in ways never intended or envisioned by the friars who created the burial records. In addition to the 1154 burials contained in the surviving burial books, the appendix contains an additional 36 lost burials records recovered from external sources. The records, as annotated by Martínez de Vara, reveal tragic stories of famine, epidemic, conflict and forced labor, but also stories of resistance, love, familial ties, cultural integration, and survival. The evidence of these stories is found interwoven in the sacramental records of this historic mission and are revealed from obscurity by applying several innovative research methods to guide the reader, whether they are searching for connections to their own ancestry, or by researchers exploring the history and challenges of the indigenous population of Mission San Antonio de Valero.
The Dawes Commission by
On February 8, 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act, named for its author, Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts. Also known as the General Allotment Act, the law allowed for President Grover Cleveland (1893-1897) to break up reservation land, which was held in common by the members of a tribe, into small allotments to be parceled out to the Citizens of the Five Nations. The Dawes Commission was responsible for activities concerning the Five Nations in Indian Territory, Oklahoma. Its major responsibility was to enforce the various treaties made between the Indian Nations and the federal government and to enforce decisions made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and its arm, the Union Agency. This Commission was also responsible for allotting tribal lands to eligible citizens, placing them in possession of their allotment(s) and settling disputes between the citizen allottee and intruders. The Commission was headquartered in Muskogee, IT (future Oklahoma). While the Dawes rolls are a major source of Indian citizen records, there is no central list of non-citizen intruders. The fact is that Indian Territory (Oklahoma) attracted thousands of whites and non-citizen Indians with the prospect of obtaining surplus tribal lands or renting or leasing individual allotments. This work incorporates both the intruders and the rightful allottees.
Our Way by
Indigenous History Is American History; Our Way: A Parallel History dispels the myths, stereotypes, and absence of information about American Indian, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian people in the master narrative of US history. For most of American history, stories of the country's Indigenous Peoples were either ignored or told by outsiders. This book corrects these errors, exploring the ways in which Indigenous cultures from every corner of the nation have influenced American society from the past into the present, reminding the reader that they have both shaped the US and continue to play a vital role in its story. Significantly, Our Way: A Parallel History is a collaboration of Native scholars representing more than ten Indigenous nations, sharing their histories and their cultures. Each contributor, either an affiliate of an institution of higher education or a prominent Native leader, provides the reader with an inside account of tribal culture and heritage. The result is a comprehensive resource restoring the histories of Indigenous Peoples and their nations to their rightful place in the story of America. The book covers topics such as The Doctrine of Discovery, Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, US American Indian Policy and Civil rights, Blood Quantum, Selling Hawaii, & Lots More. As Julie Cajune (Salish) notes in the preface, "I believe this collection of history, story, and reflection provokes and invites us to think and feel deeply about what it means for all of us to be human in our communities, nations, and beyond. After all, that is what a good story does.
Native American Genealogical Sourcebook by
This text provides historical genealogical information on Native Americans. The book looks specifically at their emigration history and genealogical records, and features a directory of genealogical information.
DNA for Native American Genealogy by
This work is the first book to offer detailed information and advice specifically aimed at family historians interested in fleshing out their Native American family tree through DNA testing. Included are step-by-step instructions, with illustrations, on how to use DNA testing at the four major DNA testing companies to further your genealogy and confirm or identify your Native American ancestors. Among the many other topics covered are the following: Tribes in the United States and First Nations in Canada; Ethnicity; Chromosome painting; Population Genetics and how ethnicity is assigned; Genetic groups and communities; Y DNA paternal direct line male testing for you and your family members; Mitochondrial DNA maternal direct line testing for you and your family members; Autosomal DNA matching and ethnicity comparisons; Creating a DNA pedigree chart; Native American haplogroups, by region and tribe; Ancient and contemporary Native American DNA.
District court records may include civil, criminal, and juvenile cases. The civil realm can hear matters of name changes, protective orders, and juvenile guardianship. The following 5-civilized tribe district court records are from the holdings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and are found on their FamilySearch.org website. You might also find district court records online by searching under the county name and “district court."
Records on these sites cover many correspondences and types of church events, such as baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials.
Missiondescendents@gmail.com
210-232-3302
P.O. Box 5218
McAllen, TX 78502
956-648-9336
Peoples of the Gulf Coast
KarankawaTribeOfTX@gmail.com
713-562-1398
Info@yanawanaherbolarios.org // 210-872-8005
1003 Creekview Dr,
San Antonio, TX 78219
info@aitscm.org // 210-227-4940
1616 E. Commerce St.,
San Antonio, Texas 78205
