Did Native Americans ever lists themselves as "white" in 19th century census records?

-An aunt of mine just recently found some information in a family Bible that listed one of my great-something grandmothers as being an Osage Native American. I was able to locate this woman in a 1880 census record, but she is listed as being W (white) instead of I (Indian). Do I have the wrong person (every other fact matches up), or was this common back then? Why would she have listed herself as being white if she really was a Native American? Any information is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!It was very common for Indians who lived in predominately white communities rather than tribal areas to be listed as white. The enumerators often did not even ask about race in a mixed family, but marked people as white unless it was brought to their attention that they were Indians.



I have been researching and teaching genealogy for many years and have seen many examples of families trying to prove their tribal affiliation and being unable to get past the misinformation on original census records.



You may find tribal records to affirm the connection. The tribal office address is



THE OSAGE NATION

P.O. Box 779 or 627 Grandview

Pawhuska, OK 74056



Here is a link that might help you.Listing yourself as Native American (Indian) could have dire consequences at that time. No one wants to volunteer for forced hunger, poverty, torture, death, loss of freedoms and rights, relocation and reservations, forced labor, and/or having your children taken and shoved into boarding schools where their culture was stolen through brute force. The government did these things, and the census is a government document.



Also, by that time (about 200 years of contact) many Native Americans had assimilated into white culture. The notation in the Bible may be family legend or oral history. It may be true, it may not.
Depends where you were.



In the Deep South, Natives were listed as Blacks, which is barely coming to light.



If they were citizens (which meant they were completely stripped of tribal identity) then they would be listed as white.



Other times, we were not citizens (which meant they resided on the reservation) then we were counted as Indians.



Some old New England church records before America was established listed marriages as "savage" like So and So's name married to savage, things like that.
Yes. I live in Georgia and one side of my family did this for safety. During the round up for the Trail of Tears my family fled into what is known as Black Lake Swamp in central Georgia and hide from soldiers. When they felt they could leave the swamp safely they went back to white friends who gave them land and helped them back onto their feet. After that they always listed themselves as white but were actually Yuchi.
My great great grandfather would have been accepted as a member of the Cherokee yet the 1880 census lists him as white. edit: And I am talking "the Deep South" Mississippi.
Of course we told anyone connected with the Government that we were anything except "Indian" or Native American...We had to hide in plain sight to survive....
The census is notorious for errors.

At the same time, family Bibles are NOT always primary records made at the time of someone's birth. It is not unheard of for persons to buy a Bible, and enter what they know (or were told) of their family history. Entries in Bibles, made at the time an event happened, are normally going to have the name and date of events...but I have never ever heard of a family member making notation that a child was of any race. Prior to the mid 1900s, being Indian was a source of stigma, and Native American is a relatively new term. Is the Bible intact? is there a publication date?

I would be skeptical of the Bible entry if that is what it said, in that manner. You should continue to be working her parents lines, and see where those lead you, and what is known about them. I HAVE confirmed one ancestor to be Cherokee by the fact of her known sister being shown in a 1850 census as being Indian (while the ancestor married "white").
Attitudes have changed about NA and if then someone 'looked' white they could have said they were white as it was easier for them to be white then....there are errors on census, they are generated by humans and humans make errors, the enumerators also guessed, were given information by neighbours, children of the family and some presumed the information that was written, which is why you get hold of and view all documents/records you can for each person you are researching.



A family Bible is a primary document...which is a document written at the time or very near to the time of the event and a primary document is far more reliable than a census return. The person who wrote in the Bible would be someone who knew your direct ancestor, possibly her own mother, father or grandmother...as even what we think of as the 'original' census returns these are transcribed documents written up from the forms filled in at the doors...once they get online they could have been transcribed several times and by several different people...each one with risk of human error.



http://familytimeline.webs.com/ there are some help sheets on here in the documents page about census errors