Crow Creek Indian Agency (South Dakota)





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

The Crow Creek Agency in the administrative office for the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. Its supervising office in the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the Aberdeen Area Office. =

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Lower Yanktonai Sioux, Lower Brule Sioux

History
Crow Creek Agency at Fort Thompson, South Dakota was established in 1874 for the Santee, Sisseton,and Wahpeton Sioux Indians. It was the successor to the Upper Missouri Agency, which had commonly been known as Crow Creek as early as 1866 when it was relocated to a site near Crow Creek below the Great Bend of the Missouri River. From 1882 to 1896, Crow Creek and Lower Brulé Agencies were consolidated and called the Crow Creek and Lower Brulé Agency. In 1896, they were separated again and remained so until 1924, when Lower Brulé Agency became a subagency of Crow Creek. In 1954, Crow Creek Agency and Lower Brulé Subagency were merged with the Pierre Industrial School to form the Pierre Indian Agency.

Agents and Appointment Dates
Henry F. Livingstone October 18, 1870, and Capt. William E. Dougherty (acting) March 21, 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.

Many of the records of the Crow Creek Agency have been transferred to the Central Plains Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Kansas City. Their holdings have been inventoried by the National Archives. Some of the records in their holdings, of interest to family historians, include:


 * Census rolls and related records, 1881-1937
 * Vital statistics, 1881-1939(FS Library Film: 1012543 Item 2 and 1002677 items 6-8, marriages 1888-1922 Film: 102643 item3)
 * Allotment records, 1886-1922
 * Tribal court records, 1889-1911
 * Annuity payrolls, 1894-1933 (FS Library Film: 1010529-1010531 and 1012643)
 * Land transactions, 1914-1939
 * Indians in military service, 1918-1940 (FS Library Film:1002677 Items 2-5)
 * School records, 1922-1939 (FS Library Film: 1002677 Item 9-16)
 * Estates and Heirships, 1926-1934 (FS Library Film: 1002677)

Most of these records have been through the FamilySearch Library and its family history centers.

Letters received from the Crow Creek Agency, 1871-1876, are included among Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, filmed by the National Archives as their Microcopy M248, Roll 249. This set of records is also available at the FamilySearch 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 Crow Creek Agency, 1875-1900, are on roll 9 of that Microcopy set. Copies are available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the FamilySearch Library and its family history centers (their ).

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Crow Creek Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Crow Creek Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 376, Crow Creek Agency, in Buffalo County, South Dakota.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Crow Creek Agency, 1907-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 31-32, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1886-1939, and 1942. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 87 thru 92. Copies of these records are also available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the FamilySearch Library and its family history centers FS Library film 575779 - 575784 (their ). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

Additional Records Available at the FamilySearch Library
Census 1880 - Ihanktonwon Indians of the Brule Teton Sioux

Census Lower Yanktonai Sioux and Lower Brule Sioux 1886-1939,1942 FS Library Film: 575779-575784

Census 1895-1940 - Lower Yanktonai Sioux FS Library Film: 1002674 Item 6 - 1002675

School Census 1924-1930, 1936 FS Library Film: 1002675-1002676

Rations Issued 1877-1908. FS Library Film: 1012644-1012645

Vital Records 1924-1932 Births and Deaths - Census Supplements FS Library film 575783