Pima, Papago and Maricopa Indian Agency (Arizona)

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Pima, Papago, Maricopa

History
A Papago Agency was established in 1864. In 1865 it was expanded to also include the Pima, Maricopa, and "Tame" Apache Indians and was called the Pima, Papago, and Maricopa Agency. In 1869, the agency was re-located at Sacaton, Arizona, in Pinal County, on the Gila River Reservation, and was called the Gila River Agency, although it was sometimes called the Pima, Maricopa and Papago Agency, and sometimes the Pima Agency, although the latter usually referred to a separate agency. Some of the records may be filed under any of these names.

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.

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 Pima, Papago and Maricopa Agency, 1883-1900, are on rolls 25-26 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 ).