Since 1790, federal census enumerators came around to count the population only every ten years. If you have Indian ancestry, and if your family stayed connected to a tribe that was under U.S. government supervision, there may be more census records to check for your family. Indians were not always listed on regular federal censuses, even when the instructions said otherwise. Contrast that to the annual (well, almost annual) censuses of Indians with a connection to a specific Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) jurisdiction. (Today the DIA is known as the BIA, Bureau of Indian Affairs.) These jurisdictions may have been a reservation, clan, band, rancheria, school, agency, hospital, or other entity, and at times, these designations were used interchangeably. Indian censuses as found on National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M595 (692 rolls!) spanning 1885-1940 were posted at Ancestry on June 25th and offer wonderful pictures of Indian families.

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