diff --git a/docs/api-guide/authentication.md b/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
index fae86386d..80d29ff47 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
@@ -169,6 +169,8 @@ The `obtain_auth_token` view will return a JSON response when valid `username` a
 
 Note that the default `obtain_auth_token` view explicitly uses JSON requests and responses, rather than using default renderer and parser classes in your settings.  If you need a customized version of the `obtain_auth_token` view, you can do so by overriding the `ObtainAuthToken` view class, and using that in your url conf instead.
 
+**Note:** If you are using `rest_framework.authtoken` with a custom Django user model and South. you have to insert a `needed_by = (('authtoken', '0001_initial'),)` to your user migration.
+
 ## SessionAuthentication
 
 This authentication scheme uses Django's default session backend for authentication.  Session authentication is appropriate for AJAX clients that are running in the same session context as your website.
diff --git a/docs/topics/release-notes.md b/docs/topics/release-notes.md
index 43499c9a9..352b16307 100644
--- a/docs/topics/release-notes.md
+++ b/docs/topics/release-notes.md
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ You can determine your currently installed version using `pip freeze`:
 * Request authentication is no longer lazily evaluated, instead authentication is always run, which results in more consistent, obvious behavior.  Eg. Supplying bad auth credentials will now always return an error response, even if no permissions are set on the view.
 * Bugfix for serializer data being uncacheable with pickle protocol 0.
 * Bugfixes for model field validation edge-cases.
+* Bugfix for authtoken migration while using a custom user model and south.
 
 ### 2.2.1
 
diff --git a/rest_framework/authtoken/migrations/0001_initial.py b/rest_framework/authtoken/migrations/0001_initial.py
index f4e052e48..d5965e404 100644
--- a/rest_framework/authtoken/migrations/0001_initial.py
+++ b/rest_framework/authtoken/migrations/0001_initial.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ from south.db import db
 from south.v2 import SchemaMigration
 from django.db import models
 
+from rest_framework.settings import api_settings
+
 
 try:
     from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
@@ -45,20 +47,7 @@ class Migration(SchemaMigration):
             'name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '50'})
         },
         "%s.%s" % (User._meta.app_label, User._meta.module_name): {
-            'Meta': {'object_name': 'User'},
-            'date_joined': ('django.db.models.fields.DateTimeField', [], {'default': 'datetime.datetime.now'}),
-            'email': ('django.db.models.fields.EmailField', [], {'max_length': '75', 'blank': 'True'}),
-            'first_name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '30', 'blank': 'True'}),
-            'groups': ('django.db.models.fields.related.ManyToManyField', [], {'to': "orm['auth.Group']", 'symmetrical': 'False', 'blank': 'True'}),
-            'id': ('django.db.models.fields.AutoField', [], {'primary_key': 'True'}),
-            'is_active': ('django.db.models.fields.BooleanField', [], {'default': 'True'}),
-            'is_staff': ('django.db.models.fields.BooleanField', [], {'default': 'False'}),
-            'is_superuser': ('django.db.models.fields.BooleanField', [], {'default': 'False'}),
-            'last_login': ('django.db.models.fields.DateTimeField', [], {'default': 'datetime.datetime.now'}),
-            'last_name': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '30', 'blank': 'True'}),
-            'password': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'max_length': '128'}),
-            'user_permissions': ('django.db.models.fields.related.ManyToManyField', [], {'to': "orm['auth.Permission']", 'symmetrical': 'False', 'blank': 'True'}),
-            'username': ('django.db.models.fields.CharField', [], {'unique': 'True', 'max_length': '30'})
+            'Meta': {'object_name': User._meta.module_name},
         },
         'authtoken.token': {
             'Meta': {'object_name': 'Token'},