Kansas Indian Agency (Kansas)

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandot, Munsee, and Stockbridge

History
The Kansas Agency was established in 1851, from the discontinued Fort Leavenworth Agency. The Kansas Agency was under the Central Superintendency and was located briefly at the old Wyandot Subagency, but more permanently on the Shawnee Reserve. In 1855, it was divided into the Delaware Agency and the Shawnee Agency. A new Kansas Agency was established in 1855 for the Kansa or Kaw Indians and was located at Council Grove, Kansas. It was discontinued in 1874, since the Kansa Indians had, by then, moved to the Osage Reservation in northeastern Indian Territory.

Two other agencies were known as the Kansas Agency for brief periods of time, but records were not filed under that name. From 1825 to 1834, a Kansas Agency for the Kansa Indians was in operation, but records were kept for it under the Fort Leavenworth Agency and the St. Louis Superintendency.

After 1874, the Potawatomi Agency, then the only agency left in Kansas, was sometimes called the Kansas Agency, but records were never filed under the heading of Kansas Agency.

Agents and Appointment Dates
A. Baronet Vasquez (subagent) April 13, 1825, Marston G. Glark (subagent) February 19, 1829, Marston G. Clark (Agent) July 12, 1832, Thomas Mosely, Jr. June 30, 1851 Benjamine F. Robinson April 18, 1853, John Montgomery March 3 1855, Milton C. Dickey March 3, 1859, H. W. Farnsworth April 18, 1861, Forrest R. Page September 1, 1866, E. S. Stover March 18, 1867, and Mahlon Stubbs June 22, 1869

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.

Letters received by the Office of Indian Affairs from the Kansas Agency, 1851-1876, have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M234, rolls 364-370. Copies are available at the National Archives and at the FamilySearch Library and its FamilySearch centers (their ).