INTRODUCTION
The following is a description of the Guion Miller Rolls from the following website:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cherokee/miller.html
The 1906/09 "Roll of the Eastern Cherokees" is better known as "The Guion Miller Roll". It was created as a result of a successful lawsuit filed by three groups of Cherokees who had not been paid all of the money due them as a result of the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. This is the ILLEGAL "treaty" that resulted in the forcible removal from their homes of those Cherokees who refused to give up their tribal citizenship, and the infamous "Trail of Tears" in 1838/39. Thousands were first herded into "pens" and for weeks/months were given food that was not fit for human consumption, contaminated drinking water, and most were forced to sleep in the open. This was done in order to "break their spirit" so they would agree to go to the western wilderness lands of Indian Territory! It worked-- by the time they were to be transported, they would have agreed to go ANYWHERE in order to get out of the pens!
The Guion Miller Roll is the most important source of Cherokee genealogical research of any of the rolls, because the application required extensive information to be supplied by the applicant. Between 27 Aug 1906 and 18 May 1909 there were 45,940 applications filed from the United States, Canada, Mexico and-- Syria! It listed an estimated 90,000 individual applicants. Each qualifying applicant received a warrant worth $133.33 for their share of the one-time payment due to them. In order for an application to be accepted on this roll, the applicant had to prove descent from a person who was shown on the 1835 roll of Eastern Cherokees (also known as The Henderson Roll), which listed the citizenship of the tribe at that time. In order for them to have been listed on that roll as "citizens", they had to have lived in the Eastern Cherokee Nation.
Finding and even verifying an ancestor who was accepted on this roll will N-O-T qualify you for tribal membership in the Cherokee Tribe today, only the 1902 Dawes Roll will do that (see "Requirements for Enrolling"- clickable from the main page). What it WILL do is give you at least two generations of information back from the applicant.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cherokee/miller.html
The 1906/09 "Roll of the Eastern Cherokees" is better known as "The Guion Miller Roll". It was created as a result of a successful lawsuit filed by three groups of Cherokees who had not been paid all of the money due them as a result of the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. This is the ILLEGAL "treaty" that resulted in the forcible removal from their homes of those Cherokees who refused to give up their tribal citizenship, and the infamous "Trail of Tears" in 1838/39. Thousands were first herded into "pens" and for weeks/months were given food that was not fit for human consumption, contaminated drinking water, and most were forced to sleep in the open. This was done in order to "break their spirit" so they would agree to go to the western wilderness lands of Indian Territory! It worked-- by the time they were to be transported, they would have agreed to go ANYWHERE in order to get out of the pens!
The Guion Miller Roll is the most important source of Cherokee genealogical research of any of the rolls, because the application required extensive information to be supplied by the applicant. Between 27 Aug 1906 and 18 May 1909 there were 45,940 applications filed from the United States, Canada, Mexico and-- Syria! It listed an estimated 90,000 individual applicants. Each qualifying applicant received a warrant worth $133.33 for their share of the one-time payment due to them. In order for an application to be accepted on this roll, the applicant had to prove descent from a person who was shown on the 1835 roll of Eastern Cherokees (also known as The Henderson Roll), which listed the citizenship of the tribe at that time. In order for them to have been listed on that roll as "citizens", they had to have lived in the Eastern Cherokee Nation.
Finding and even verifying an ancestor who was accepted on this roll will N-O-T qualify you for tribal membership in the Cherokee Tribe today, only the 1902 Dawes Roll will do that (see "Requirements for Enrolling"- clickable from the main page). What it WILL do is give you at least two generations of information back from the applicant.
STEP-BY-STEP
1. Get the Guion Miller Rolls Book – 970.3 C424cb
2. Get the Application Number for George Guess
Write down the application Number 5059 for George Guess
3. Get the Native American Register
4. Use Section II starting on page pg. 35 of the Native American Register
5. Using the Application Number 5059, Get the Film Number
Write down the Film Number 378,400 for George Guess
6. Get the Film 378,400 and search by Application Number 5059 for the following:
CONCLUSION
From this example you should notice that there is a lot more information in the Guion Miller Roll which has been added to the information on George Guess in the Dawes Rolls.
