Standing Rock Indian Agency (North Dakota)

The Standing Rock Agency is a currently operating agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Its supervising office is the Aberdeen Area Office.

History
The Standing Rock Agency succeeded the Grand River Agency which was established in 1869 for several bands of Sioux Indians. The Grand River Agency was moved to Standing Rock in 1873 and renamed Standing Rock Agency in 1874.

Records
Some of the textual records of the Standing Rock Agency have been transferred to the Central Plains Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Kansas City. Among their many administrative files are the following records which may be of particular interest to family historians:


 * Indian Court and Police Force Records, 1881-1926
 * Census records, 1884-1939
 * School records, 1884-1928
 * Annuity payrolls, 1904-1922
 * Probate and Heirship records, 1908-1915
 * Vital statistics, 1916-1939

Some of these records (and perhaps others of the agency records) have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and at their many family history centers.

Letters received by the Office of Indian Affairs from the Standing Rock Agency, 1875-1880, have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M234, rolls 846-852. Copies are available at the National Archives and at the Family History Library and its family history centers (their microfilm roll numbers 1661576 thru 1661582).

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 Standing Rock Agency, 1875-1899, are on rolls 52-53 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 numbers 1617725-1617726).

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1885-1913, and from 1915 thru 1939. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 547-563. 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 583006 thru 583022). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Standing Rock Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Standing Rock Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 260, Standing Rock Reservation, in Morton County, North Dakota and in District 48 in South Dakota where it is listed in the Bureau of the Census records as a separate locality of the state..

Microfilm copies of...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Standing Rock Agency, 1907-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, rolls 144-145, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and their family history centers (their microfilm roll numbers 1724362-1724333).