Pawnee Indian Agency (Oklahoma)

The Pawnee Agency is located in Oklahoma. Its supervising office in the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the Anadarko Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
1859-present -- Pawnee

1919-1921 -- Otoe, Ponca, Kansa

1927-present -- Pawnee, Otoe, Ponca, Kansa, Tonkawa

History
The Pawnee Agency in Nebraska was established in 1859 for the Pawnee Indians previously assigned to the Otoe Agency since 1856 and to Council Bluffs Agency prior to that. It was located at Genoa, Nebraska until 1875, when it was moved to the new Pawnee Reservation on Black Bear Creek, about 8 miles from the Arkansas River in Indian Territory.

In 1882, the Ponca Agency and the Otoe Agency merged with the Pawnee Agency to form the Ponca, Pawnee, and Otoe Agency. In 1885, a group of Tonkawa Indians joined them and the agency was known as the Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, and Oakland Agency. During the years of 1901-1904, the Otoe Agency and the Oakland Agency were re-established.

In 1919, the Otoe and Ponca Agencies were merged with the Pawnee Agency. In 1921, the Ponca Agency was again re-established, but the Kansa Indians, who had been a part of the Ponca Agency, stayed with the Pawnee Agency. The Ponca Agency was permanently merged with the Pawnee Agency in 1927.

Records
Some of the records of the Pawnee Agency are in the Southwest Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Fort Worth and the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City. Most of these records are administrative records of the agency, although there are some probate records, 1915-1940 and school census records, 1916-1945.

Letters received by the Office of Indian Affairs from the Pawnee Agency, 1859-1880, have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M234, Rolls 659-668. Copies are available at the National Archives and at the Family History Library and its family history centers on their microfilm roll numbers 1661389 thru 1661398.

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 Pawnee Agency, 1873-1880, are on roll 35 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 microfilm roll number 1617728).

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Pawnee Agency, 1907-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 100-102, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (their microfilm numbers 1724318-320).

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1902 thru 1939. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 336-343. 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 roll numbers 579746-579753). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

Agency Records Available Through the Family History Library
Ponca Tribe, 1886-1952 (Annuity, Census, Heirship, School, Probate,and Vital) FHL films: 1204632-33, 1021359-62,

Otoe-Missouri, 1895-1944 (Allotment, Census, School,Vital) FHL films: 1205233, 1023978, 1204635

Tonkawa Tribe, 1895-1952 (Allotment, School and Vital). FHL films 1205529 and 1204633