Neah Bay Indian Agency (Washington)

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Makah, Quileute, Hoh, and Ozette

History
The Neah Bay Agency was established in 1861, primarily for the Indians of the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, including the Makah, Ozette, Hoh, and Quileute Indians. It was abolished in 1933 and its responsibilities transferred to the Taholah Agency.

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 created at Neah Bay, especially for the years 1883 to 1938, are at the Pacific Alaska Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Seattle, including:


 * Birth and Death registers, 1901-1933
 * A register of Indian families
 * Allotment records
 * Heirship cases
 * Court cases

The records for Neah Bay are filed with those for Taholah Agency, in the collections at the Seattle archives.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Neah Bay School and Agency, 1915-1933, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 90 and 91, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their. Reports for some years are missing.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1885 thru 1933. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 283 thru 286. 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 ). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

Records Available through the Family History Library

 * Birth and Death records 1925-1932 FS Library film 579696 (this film is part of the above collection)

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for several tribes under the jurisdiction of the Neah Bay Agency in that year. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Makah Indian Reservation, District 247, in Clallam County, Washington, the Ozette Indian Reservation, District 247, in Clallam County, Washington, the Quileute Indian Reservation, District 247, in Clallam County, Washington, and the Hoh River Indian Reservation, District 247, in Jefferson County, Washington.