Fort McDermitt Indian Subagency (Nevada)

Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Primarily Paiute.

History
The Fort McDermitt Reservation was established in 1889, but the Fort McDermitt Agency apparently did not start to operate until about 1906. It continued as a subagency until at least 1923, at which time the Indians under its jurisdiction were assigned to the Reno Agency. In 1923, the California Indians that had been under the jurisdiction of Reno were transferred to the Sacramento Agency. In 1925, the Reno Agency and the Carson School were consolidated to form the Carson Agency. Some records exist under the title of Fort McDermitt Subagency for as late as 1948, although the title may refer to the name of the reservation, rather than to the subagency.

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.

A few records of the Fort McDermitt Subagency, 1906-1948, are in the Pacific Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in San Francisco. :

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Fort McDermitt Subagency, 1910-1921, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Roll 51, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (their ).

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1910 thru 1923. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, roll 149. 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.