Tribal & government records | Digital Archive Catalog
This public catalog guide introduces the Treaties, Laws & Paper Games collection in the Native Black Ancestry Digital Archive. Full archive browsing and available files are accessed through the member archive.
What this collection contains
Who got counted, who got land, and who got crossed out? Read treaties, laws, rolls, and official letters for yourself.
How to use the evidence
Read the operative wording, date, jurisdiction, and affected population. Distinguish a law's text from its enforcement and later commentary. A historical enrollment entry and present-day citizenship eligibility are different questions.
Virginia, 1705: Indian and African descent within “mulatto”
This act bars “negro, mulatto or Indian” people from public office. Its definition of “mulatto” includes a child of an Indian and specified generations descended from a Negro. It documents overlapping legal categories while still naming Indian separately in the office prohibition.
Catalog citation: Virginia General Assembly, chapter IV; Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 3, pp. 250–252. Primary text published by Virginia Humanities.
Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act: the 1924 health bulletin
Three scanned pages reproduce the health department bulletin announcing the new racial integrity law. The act restricted marriage and defined whiteness with an exception for limited American Indian ancestry. Compare the statute with Plecker’s letters to see how officials pursued its enforcement.
Catalog citation: Virginia Health Bulletin, vol. XVI, March 1924, “The New Virginia Law To Preserve Racial Integrity.” Library of Virginia, Rockbridge Clerk’s Correspondence, 12-1245-005 to 007.
Source information and access
Catalog summaries describe the materials and their research context. Consult each member record for its full citation, available scans, and any transcription or curator notes. If a creator, date, or repository is unidentified, treat that information as unresolved rather than inferred.
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