Wind River Indian Agency (Wyoming)

Wind River Indian Agency is the administrative office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Its supervising office is the Billings Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Shoshone, Arapaho

History
The Wind River Agency was originally called the Shoshone and Bannock Agency from its establishment in 1870 until 1883, when it became the Shoshone Agency. It was the successor to the Fort Bridger Agency.

Most of the Bannock moved to the Fort Hall Reservation in 1872. In 1878 some Northern Arapaho moved onto the Wind River Reservation. In 1937, the name was changed to the Wind River Agency. The agency serviced the Shoshone and Bannock Indians living on a reservation in the Wind River area of Wyoming from 1870-1872. Most of the Bannock Indians moved to Fort Hall in 1872 and some Northern Arapaho moved onto the reservation in 1878.

Records
Many of the historical records of this agency and its predecessors are housed in the Rocky Mountain Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Denver, Colorado. Records in that collection which may be of assistance to the genealogist include:


 * Land allotment records, 1896-1946
 * Census records, 1894-1907, 1931-1958
 * Record of employees at the Shoshone Agency, 1907-1922

Many more records of lesser genealogical value are also in this collection.

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Shoshone Indian Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Shoshone Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 73, Shoshone Agency], in Fremont County, Wyoming.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1938-1939. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, roll 663. 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 microfilm numbers 583122). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Wind River Agency, 1938 only, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 169, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (their microfilm number 1724387.