Earle Report: counting "persons reputed Indians, who are of mixed or other race" (Massachusetts, Act of April 6, 1859; report 1861)

SUMMARYEarle Report: counting "persons reputed Indians, who are of mixed or other race" (Massachusetts, Act of April 6, 1859; report 1861) [Connections: Northeast & Mid-Atlantic, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDThe 1859 act directed Commissioner John Milton Earle to examine "all Indians and the descendants of Indians domiciled in this Commonwealth" and to count "the number of persons reputed Indians, who are of mixed or other race." The appendix lists each person's "tribe or race." Thomas Doughton counts 1,582 people listed. Earle also kept a "Miscellaneous" list of people with the blood of several tribes or tribes from out of state, who were "still classified as Indian" (Cheryll Toney Holley, Hassanamisco Nipmuc). Today Mashpee citizenship requires descent from someone on the 1861 list. Hostile witness: a state commissioner was deciding who was "reputed" Indian in order to prepare for ending wardship

PATTERNThe state itself asked how many people were Indians "of mixed or other race," which shows mixed people were being counted as Indian, not left out, in 1859–61

LENS (WW9)A state document lists Indian people of mixed race by name

OPENRead Earle's own text on African-descended members (the full report was not read this session). Check Doughton's 1,582 figure

SOURCEFalmouth Genealogical Society, "The 1861 Earle Report"; Thomas Doughton, People of Color in New England blog; Cheryll Toney Holley, "John Milton Earle's Miscellaneous Indians". Primary: J.M. Earle, Report to the Governor and Council Concerning the Indians of the Commonwealth (Boston, 1861).