Indigenous Peoples of Kentucky

Learn about the indigenous people of Kentucky, the tribes and bands, state recognized tribes,and records.

Introduction
The most prominent early indigenous tribes in Kentucky were the Cherokee, Chickasaws, and Shawnee. Most of these tribes were eliminated from Kentucky by about the early 1800s either through warfare or resettlement to other territories by the federal government. No separate records were kept for people with Native American blood.

To learn how to get started with Native American research, find research facilities, and Native American websites click here.

See Indigenous Peoples of the United States and Their Records for suggestions on how to research Native American ancestry. If you are searching for indigenous people in Kentucky, search the same types of records used to research non-Native Americans. You may want to see:


 * McConnell, Michael Norman. A Country Between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724–1774. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. . This book contains a comprehensive history of indigenous people in the upper Ohio Valley, including the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. In addition, this source contains biographies of prominent Kentucky Native Americans and a bibliography of sources.

Tribes and Bands of Kentucky
The following list of Native Americans who have lived in Kentucky has been compiled from Hodge's Handbook of American Indians... and from Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America. Some may simply be variant spellings for the same tribe.


 * Cherokee
 * Chickasaw
 * Delaware
 * Mosopelea
 * Shawnee
 * Wyandot
 * Yuchi

Tribes Recognized by the State of Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky currently has no federally recognized tribes and has not established a process by which tribes can be recognized by the state.

Records
The majority of records of individuals were those created by the agencies. Some records may be available to tribal members through the tribal headquarters.They were (and are) the local office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and were charged with maintaining records of the activities of those under their responsibility. Among these records are:


 * Allotment records
 * Annuity rolls
 * Census records
 * Correspondence
 * Health records
 * Reports
 * School census and records
 * Vital records

See Also:

 * Kentucky-History for a calendar of events
 * Kentucky-Military for a list of forts
 * Melungeons a "tri-racial" group of Indian, and possibly Portuguese, and possibly African mix.

Family History Library
For additional sources on specific tribes, use the Subject Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under the name of the tribe. For example:

SHAWNEE

Other sources are listed in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

KENTUCKY- NATIVE RACES