ENROLLMENT CRITERIA AND INSTRUCTIONS

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE TRIBAL CLERK

To enroll in the Southern Cherokee Nation, you must be able to prove through documentation (birth certificates, death certificates, census records, family records and bibles, newspaper articles, etc.) your direct descent from a Southern Cherokee in order to be a successor in interest to the Treaty of 1866. This is proven through having connected directly to someone listed on Stand Watie's regiments, along with the proof that the person listed on the regiments is of Cherokee blood and/or proving direct descent from a person listed on the 1867 Tompkins Roll. This roll was done by the U.S. government in order to identify the parties to the Treaty of 1866.

Once you have established your entire line of descent, please submit all documents showing your line of descent to the tribal office, along with your name, address, phone number, email (if you wish) and a full-face photo. The enrollment cards we issue are photo ID. If the person wishing to be enrolled is a married female, you will also have to submit a copy of the marriage license(s) in order to complete direct line to the present legal name as you would sign on any document. If the woman has been married more than once and did not take back her maiden name during divorce proceedings, we will need to have each marriage license in order to verify progression from birth name to present name. Your file will be reviewed by the tribal clerk and if any documentation is missing, you will be notified in writing by the tribal clerk as to what documents are necessary to complete your file. If and when all documentation is there to prove eligibility for enrollment, the file will be entered and recorded as approved and membership cards will be issued by the Tribal Clerk.  If you wish to enroll any minor children at the same time as you submit your file, please include their birth certificate with your file. A photo is not required for children under the age of 18 as they will be issued a minor card until they reach the age of 18 at which time the child is to submit a photo, current address and phone number and an adult card will be issued. If you have adult children who wish to be enrolled, you may submit their birth certificate, address, phone number and a photo at the same time as you submit your file and they will also be considered at the same time for enrollment. Tribal enrollment is maintained with a filing system which denotes all family group connections.

There can be no exceptions, no adoptions and no alleged right of enrollment by and through alleged citizenship right of ancestors in the Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi that received Dawes allotments.  Dawes allotment Cherokees may be so for reason of alleged ‘citizenship’, ‘adoption’, and ‘intermarriage’ and may be of no Indian blood whatsoever or so little a blood sample as to diminish the Indian blood to zero.  There are, however, some Dawes allotment Cherokees (in the minority) that are of significant Indian blood as well as some full bloods.  This is not about blood politics.

The Southern Cherokee Nation are not Dawes allottees nor descended from Dawes allottees, although some Cherokees related, one way or another to SCN Cherokees may have received allotments, the SCN are not Dawes Commission allottees.  Dawes Commission allottees, who were previously a band of the old Cherokee Nation as were the Southern Cherokee, are organized under the banner of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and have nothing whatever to do with the SCN.  No one, under the SCN Constitution, is eligible for SCN membership based on reason of ancestors having received Dawes allotments.

Furthermore, any person who is presently a member of another tribe or band i.e. the Eastern Band of Cherokee or the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, would not be eligible for enrollment with the Southern Cherokee. This is made evident upon review of the Bureau of Ethnology which can be found within the Historical Documents on our History link.

To submit a file, please mail all documents to:
 

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to call the tribal office at 918-464-2753.