Nisqually Indian Agency (Washington)

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Nisqually, Skokomish

History
The Nisqualli Agency, the Skokomish Agency, and the Quinaielt Agency were merged in 1888 to form the Puyallup Agency.

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.

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Nisqually Indian Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Nisqually Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 155, Nisqually Indian Reservation, in Pierce County, Washington.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1885, 1915, and from 1885 thru 1887. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 272 thru 282. 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 and Footnote.com subscription web sites (available free at many family history centers).