FORT WORTH — In the early 1900s, 61-year-old Clement Rogers filled out federal paperwork at a post office in Claremore, Okla., that detailed his ties to the Cherokee Indians.

The Dawes Rolls (officially, the “Final Rolls of the Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory”) were the lists of citizens officially counted as members of the ...

Many people claim Cherokee ancestry, but they don't understand the difference between heritage and being a citizen of a federally recognized tribe. The Cherokee Nation is the largest Native ...

In fact, the Dawes Rolls included thousands of blacks and whites who had lived with Indian tribes such as the Cherokee for generations. These non-Indians were historically recognized as Cherokee ...

"The Dawes Rolls don't lend support to [Warren's] claim," she told The Atlantic. ... and also to have "a direct lineal ancestor" on "the 1924 Baker Roll of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians." ...

There are scores of Cherokee people whose ancestors are not listed on the Dawes Rolls. This is because they either refused to sign up, or they were simply missed by the white census-takers.

Today, the Cherokee Nation is made up of Indian people. ... Briefly between March 2006 and March 2007, our tribal courts opened citizenship to descendants of non-Indians on the Dawes Rolls, ...