Record guide

Indian Census Rolls, 1885 to 1940

The Indian Census Rolls are lists that federal agents usually sent in each year from 1885 to 1940, naming the American Indians under their charge with ages and family ties.

From 1885 to 1940, the agents and superintendents in charge of Indian reservations were required to send the Commissioner of Indian Affairs a census of the people under their charge each year, and usually did. The National Archives filmed the surviving rolls as microfilm publication M595, 692 rolls in all. Only people who kept a formal affiliation with a tribe under federal supervision are listed, but for those families the rolls can follow one household year after year.

The rolls were made by the government for its own purposes, and they show people as the agents recorded them. In 1921 the Commissioner reminded agents that the rolls were often the basis of property rights, used to decide who was entitled to an allotment and to settle inheritances. Tribal membership today is decided by each tribe, not by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, so a name on a roll is a research clue, not an answer about enrollment.

Why the rolls were made

An act of July 4, 1884 told each Indian agent to include in his annual report a census of the Indians at his agency or on the reservation under his charge. The act did not ask for names. In 1885 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in Circular 148, told superintendents to submit a census of all Indians under their charge every year, and sent a sample with columns for number, Indian name, English name, relationship, sex, and age.

There was supposed to be one census for each reservation, and the original went to the Commissioner with no extra copies made. The regular yearly census was stopped in 1940, although a few later rolls exist. Most of the 1940 rolls stayed with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and are not part of M595. There is not a census for every reservation or group for every year.

The early rolls, 1885 to 1929

The usual entries are the English name, the Indian name, or both, a roll number, an age or date of birth, sex, and relationship to the head of the family. The column for the Indian name stayed on the form, but Indian names were seldom filled in after about 1904. Instructions on names stressed the usefulness of giving the whole family one surname, so that wives and children would be known by the father's or husband's name in questions of property and inheritance. Long names could be shortened in English; the National Archives gives the example of Dog Turning Round written as Turningdog. Compare a person's name across several years before deciding two entries are different people.

The roll number is not a fixed identity at first. In the earliest rolls it was simply a running number that could change from one year to the next. From 1914 agents were asked to show a person's number on the previous roll, and in 1929 they were specifically told to do so. In many cases the 1929 position became an identifying number carried on later rolls. By 1921 agents had to explain any name added for the first time or dropped since the last year, and a person could be marked N.E., for not enrolled.

The new forms of the 1930s

Between 1928 and 1930 the form was turned sideways, gained more columns, and carried printed instructions on the back. The 1930 form has the present and previous census numbers, Indian name, English surname and given name, allotment and annuity numbers, sex, month, day and year of birth, degree of blood, marital condition, and relation to the head of the family. The 1931 form adds the tribe, whether the person lived at the jurisdiction where enrolled, another jurisdiction, or a post office, county, and state elsewhere, and whether the person was a ward.

A family was defined as the head, the wife, children including stepchildren and adopted children, other relatives, and others living with the family. Children away at school were still listed at home. Spouses who were not Indian were not listed: the National Archives notes that Charles Eastman's non-Indian wife does not appear with him on the Flandreau census. For 1935, 1936, 1938, and 1939 only supplemental rolls of additions and deletions were made, so look at the year before and after.

Reading the rolls with care

Degree of blood was not asked on the early rolls. In 1930, because the returns were tabulated by machine, agents could use only three symbols: F for full blood, 1/4+ for one fourth or more, and -1/4 for less than one fourth. In 1933 they were told to use F, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8, and later to be exact if possible. The National Archives warns that a 1930 figure cannot be turned back into a more exact fraction.

Agents were sometimes unsure whether to list people who were away. The Commissioner told them again and again to drop the dead and those gone for years, and his repeated complaints suggest the errors continued. From 1930 the rule was to list every enrollee, on the reservation or elsewhere, with an address for those away. The Bureau's 1930 roll and the 1930 federal census were separate counts with different instructions, so search both.

Rolls and tribal membership

After the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, a number of tribes adopted a Bureau census as the base roll in their constitutions. The Oglala Sioux constitution, for example, begins its membership rule with all persons on the official census roll of the Pine Ridge Reservation as of April 1, 1935. Each tribe sets its own rules, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs says it keeps no database of enrolled members and does not do genealogy research.

The Bureau also says blood tests and DNA tests will not document descent from a specific federally recognized tribe. A tribe that accepts testing may use it only to show that a person is biologically related to a tribal member. For the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Nations, the Bureau points instead to the Dawes Commission Rolls, which those five tribes use as their base membership rolls.

On the page, look for

Learn the tribe and the agency or reservation where the family lived, since the rolls are arranged by jurisdiction.
Find the family on one roll and copy every column, including both census numbers and any allotment or annuity number.
Follow the family forward and back year by year, noting births, deaths, and people who join or leave the household.
Check whether the name changes form between years, and match people by age and relationship as well as name.
For the 1930s, read the residence columns and the ward column, and check the supplemental rolls for 1935, 1936, 1938, and 1939.
Treat degree of blood, especially in 1930, as the agent's entry on a limited form, not as an exact figure.
Search the federal census for the same years for family members who were not listed, such as a spouse who was not Indian.
Take questions about membership to the tribe's enrollment office, with birth and death certificates that link each generation.

Where to see them for free

The National Archives, which holds the rolls as microfilm publication M595 (National Archives Identifier 595276); its online Microfilm Catalog shows which facilities have copies.
Ancestry and Fold3, which have digitized and indexed M595; the National Archives notes that both are free in its research rooms.
Microfilm publication M1121, the Bureau's orders and circulars from 1854 to 1955, for the instructions agents were following in a given year. It is not online.
The tribe's own enrollment office for any question about membership, found through the Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Leaders Directory.

Sources

How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "Indian Census Rolls, 1885 to 1940." Record guides. https://dailyancestor.com/records/indian-census-rolls. Last checked 2026-10-12.