<h4 class="ql-align-justify"><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Seminole Freedmen,&nbsp;as they were called, were the&nbsp;only African Americans living among the Five&nbsp;Civilized Tribes who were entitled to tribal allotments. Unlike the other Five&nbsp;Civilized Tribes--which held African&nbsp;Americans as slaves--the Seminole&nbsp;incorporated blacks into their tribe. Since&nbsp;the Curtis Act required the Dawes&nbsp;Commission to "follow tribal customs and&nbsp;usages" in processing applications for&nbsp;allotment, it had to consider any&nbsp;children of a mixed marriage "freedmen rather&nbsp;than citizens by blood . . ."; however, this did not prevent the newborn&nbsp;freedmen from sharing equally with&nbsp;full-bloods in the division of Seminole&nbsp;lands. Under this definition each&nbsp;Seminole newborn freedman was to receive&nbsp;forty acres of Indian Territory.&nbsp;</strong></h4><h4 class="ql-align-center"><br></h4><h4 class="ql-align-justify"><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">&nbsp;</strong><em style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Applications for&nbsp;Enrollment&nbsp;of Seminole Newborn Freedmen, Act of 1905,</em><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">&nbsp;have been transcribed from National Archive&nbsp;film&nbsp;M-1301, Roll 402. The applications found in M-1301 and transcribed in this&nbsp;series contain more information and establish family relationships not found on&nbsp;the census cards in National Archive film M-1186, the basis for the seminal&nbsp;title&nbsp;</strong><em style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory [and] Index to the Final Rolls.&nbsp;These </em><strong style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">transcriptions&nbsp;include all correspondence associated with successful Seminole claimants.&nbsp;&nbsp;Besides the names of all parents and newborns, the applications include the&nbsp;names of doctors, lawyers, midwives, and other Seminole relatives whose&nbsp;identities were divulged as part of the application process, and who attended&nbsp;to the Seminole before and during this time in history.</strong></h4><p><br></p>