Standing Rock Indian Agency (North Dakota)

The Standing Rock Agency is a currently operating agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Its supervising office is the Aberdeen Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Sioux (of Missouri and Platte River), Blackfeet Sioux, Hunkpapa Sioux, and Yantonai Sioux,

History
The Standing Rock Agency succeeded the Grand River Agency which was established in 1869 for several bands of Sioux Indians. The Grand River Agency was moved to Standing Rock in 1873 and renamed Standing Rock Agency in 1874.

Agents and Appointment Dates
Edmond Palmer 1873, John Burke 1875, Capt. R.E. Johnson 1876, Lt. Col. W. P. Carlin 1876, William T. Hughes 1876, Leverett M. Kelley 1878, Joseph A. Stephan 1878

Records
Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value (for the tribe and tribal members) were created by and maintained by the agencies.

Some of the textual records of the Standing Rock Agency have been transferred to the Central Plains Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Kansas City. Among their many administrative files are the following records which may be of particular interest to family historians:


 * Indian Court and Police Force Records, 1881-1926
 * Census records, 1884-1939
 * School records, 1884-1928
 * Annuity payrolls, 1904-1922
 * Probate and Heirship records, 1908-1915
 * Vital statistics, 1916-1939

Some of these records (and perhaps others of the agency records) have been at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and at their many family history centers.

Letters received by the Office of Indian Affairs from the Standing Rock Agency, 1875-1880, have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M234, rolls 846-852. Copies are available at the National Archives and at the Family History Library and its family history centers (their ).

Reports of Inspection of the Field Jurisdictions of the Office of Indian Affairs, 1873-1900 have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of Microcopy Number M1070. The reports for Standing Rock Agency, 1875-1899, are on rolls 52-53 of that Microcopy set. Copies are available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the Family History Library and its family history centers (their ).

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1885-1913, and from 1915 thru 1939. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 547-563. Copies of these records are also available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the Family History Library and its family history centers (their ). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

Vital Records part of Indian Census Rolls above

Birth and Death records 1924-1932 FHL film 583017

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Standing Rock Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Standing Rock Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 260, Standing Rock Reservation, in Morton County, North Dakota and in District 48 in South Dakota where it is listed in the Bureau of the Census records as a separate locality of the state.. More information at Standing Rock Indian Reservation

Microfilm copies of...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Standing Rock Agency, 1907-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, rolls 144-145, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and their family history centers (their ).

Records Available through the Family History Library

 * Annuity and rations various years including 1872 -1876,1878 -1885, 1907-1914,1920 FHL Film: 1021931-1021935


 * Census records, 1884-1939 FHL Film: 583006-583022


 * Census records 1876-1939 FHL Film: 1021938 -1021942, 1204877-1204879


 * 1889 Census-list of males over 18 FHL Film: 1204879 items 3-4


 * Heirship 1900 -1920 FHL Film: 1204873 -1204874;1021935


 * Historical and Tribal Council Records FHL film: 1204875 Items 6-7


 * Land Records 1906 -1921 FHL Film: 1021935 and 1021875


 * Rations 1885, 1907-1914, Annuities 1886, 1920 FHL Film: 1021931-1021935


 * School Records 1886 -1941, 1915 -1941 FHL Film: 1204879 item5-1204880


 * Vital Records -Tribal Adoptions 1905 -1923 FHL Film: 1021937


 * Vital Records-Birth, Marriage and Death 1880 -1942 FHL Film: 1204876 and 1021936