Native American Ancestry
Native American ancestry can be traced back thousand and thousands of years and many people with Native American blood need to prove their Native American ancestry in order to receive the benefits entitled to their specific tribe from the United States government. There are many others who just want to uncover where they came from and find out if they do have a long Native American ancestry and sometimes dig even more deep into their genealogical records to find out all their tribes details, such as where and how they lived.
There are hundreds of thousands of Americans with Native American roots and most Native American genealogy records need to be obtained from the United States government. When and if you do find Native American descendants you then qualify for tribal membership and all the benefits that come with it. One of the benefits of being a true Native American descendant is that you are not obligated to pay taxes since originally this land belonged to you people, this was a very important treaty with the government and the Five Civilized Indian tribes – the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, the Creek and the Seminole Tribes.
In the past most records you would need to prove your Native American ancestry needed to be obtained through the United States Court of Claims, since they were in charge of the plots of land that was given to each of the civilized tribes and that also had records of all of the tribal members of a particular tribe. After some time these records of Native American ancestry were published and this made it much easier to do genealogical research. In modern times there are Tribal organizations that can help you take care of all of the steps in obtaining tribal membership and the benefits of it. Many of the treaties that were made among the government and the different tribes are still upheld to this day, which is the honorable thing for the US government to do. So if you do want to start tracing your American Indian roots there are many websites, both government sites, tribe’s sites and even commercial sites that can help you find the answers to all your questions, and can also help you find the information you desire.