2
Roll and 1908 Churchill Roll.
2
Finally, Baker and his colleagues also employed the
1909 Eastern Cherokee Roll, otherwise known as the Guion Miller Roll.
3
The Enrolling Commission made a tentative roll of members of the Eastern Band based
on these earlier records, but received applications from others desiring to be included on
the roll. According to the final report of Fred A. Baker, examiner of inheritance,
3,833 applications were filed, involving 11,979 individuals. There were 1,924 uncontest-
ed applications, 1,229 contested cases that were approved, and 687 that were apparently
not accepted. Eventually, 3,146 applications were accepted by Baker and the Enrolling
Commission.
From 1924 to the issuance of the Baker Roll in 1928, many persons claiming Cherokee
ancestry were excluded from rolls of the Eastern Band or were denied affiliation by the
tribal council. Excluded claimants asked the Enrolling Commission for hearings and
furnished evidence for Cherokee lineage. A number of cases were disputed by the council,
and included the Coleman, Crowe, Driver, French, Hardin, Jordan, Lambert, McCoy,
McDonald, Maney, Meroney, Murphy, Raper, Reed, Rogers, Smith, Taylor, Timpson,
Wolfe, and other families. Some claimants hired as their attorney a recently retired
official of the Bureau of Indian Affairs named Guion Miller, the man who had previously
compiled the 1909 Eastern Cherokee Roll. On December 1, 1928, Mr. Baker submitted
his “final” roll to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who in turn submitted his own
report to the Secretary of the Interior about the efforts of Agent Baker and the Enrolling
Commission, along with miscellaneous appeals and legal briefs for contested and
appealed cases, with references to pertinent testimony and decisions of the Commission.
The Baker Roll and related records of the Eastern Enrolling Commission include a great
deal of genealogical information about families and individuals claiming Cherokee
lineage.
RECORDS DESCRIPTION
Records concerning the Eastern Cherokee Enrolling Commission in the National
Archives include indexes, correspondence, applications, transcripts of testimony,
decisions, rolls, and other records compiled by the Commission and used in producing
the 1928 Baker Roll.
2
The 1907 Council Roll and 1908 Churchill Roll are part of records relating to enrollment of
the Eastern Cherokees, 1907–1916.
3
Mr. Guion Miller, an employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was assigned by the U.S.
Court of Claims to authenticate applications of persons claiming Cherokee ancestry for the 1909
Eastern Cherokee Roll. The applications have been filmed as M1104, Eastern Cherokee
Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims 1906–1909 (348 rolls). Agent Miller also consulted
several Cherokee rolls, which have been reproduced as part of microfilm publication M685,
Records Relating to Enrollment of Eastern Cherokee by Guion Miller, 1908–1910 (12 rolls).
Roll 12 includes Miller’s own copies of the 1850 Old Settlers Roll, the 1850 Drennen Roll, the
1851 Chapman Roll, and the 1884 Hester Roll.