Geneology Hobby

When my brother Wayne graduated from HHS and enroled at OSU he applied to the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs for financial assistance . He was informed that he would have to document that he was at least one-fourth Indian. Since we are Choctaw Indians, the only acceptable documentation was to prove that he was a direct descendant of an Indian enrolled on the "Dawes Rolls". Wayne soon found out that our Grand Mother was indeed on the rolls but that she was enrolled as 3/4 Choctaw which meant that her grand children would be 3/16 and therefore not eligible for the college tuition assistance. Well that didn’t deter Wayne. He got a job in Stillwater and paid his own way through school graduating with honors.
Although I didn’t do much about it back then, it did start me to wanting to know more about my ancestry and over the years I’ve been able to document quite a lot about who my ancestors were- both Indian and non-Indian. One of the very helpful resources was the WPA Pioneer History project. Many Oklahomans were interviewed by WPA historians and the transcripts of their interviews are available. Some of them are even on the internet. Many citizens of Heavener and thereabouts were interviewed. Check and see if your ancestor was interviewed by visiting
www.okgenweb.org/pioneer/ and click on the INDIAN PIONEER PAPERS INDEX.
To read about my Great Grand Mother Lily Sexton clik on the S’s.
Happy Hunting.
PS I have been able to document that the :Dawes Rolls were indeed wrong but that does not matter. Whether right or wrong, what the Dawes Rolls contain have been determined to be "law" and therefore to be right; even if they are not "right".
PS/PS The tuition rules have now changed and now it is not up to the Bureau of Indian Affairs but rather each individual tribe determines itself who to give tuition assistance to. My own grand children who are 3/64 have been able to get tribal assistance but mostly they get "Grampa Assistance".