Prepared by Elisabeth Lindsay.
For the present, "Native American" is the term most often used in genealogy. Because of its unique cultural history, Native American research is challenging, at best. Many Indian rolls and other government records exist that can, conceivably, trace one's lineage back to the 1700s. However, for a great many whose ancestors' names do not appear in these records, identifying ancestry becomes much more difficult, if not impossible. Today, DNA testing is often used to supplement traditional genealogy in discovering ancestral identity.