Southern Superintendency of Indian Affairs

History
The Southern Superintendency of Indian Affairs was established in 1851 to replace the Western Superintendency. After the Southern Superintendency was abolished in 1870, except for treaty stipulations, and the agents reported directly to the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC.

Records for Superintendencies exist in the National Archives and copies of many of them are also available in other research facilities.

Tribes
Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole, Quapaw, Seneca, Shawnee, Osage, Wichita, Kichai, Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, Tonkawa, Hainai, Kichai,Tawaknoi, Delaware, Comanche

Superintendents
John Drennen1851, Thomas S. Drew 1853, Charles W. Dean 1855, Elias Rector 1857, William G. Coffin 1861, Elijah Sells 1865, William Byers 1866, James Wortham 1867, L. Newton Robinson 1868, [https://cdm17279.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17279coll4/id/32960/rec/96 Bvt. Maj. Gen. W. B. Hazen] 1869

Agencies
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.


 * Cherokee Agency (Oklahoma)
 * Chickasaw Agency (Oklahoma)
 * Choctaw Agency (Oklahoma)
 * Creek Agency (Oklahoma)
 * Neosho Agency
 * Seminole Agency (Oklahoma)
 * Wichita Agency

The Southern Superintendency includes records of the Western Superintendency of Indian Affairs which operated from 1832-1851. Its responsibility included the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Osage, Seneca, Seminole, Shawnee, and Quapaw Indians. It also included the Wichita, Comanche, Cherokee, and Creek Agencies and the Arkansas Superintendency. The Wichita Agency had responsibility for Wichita, Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, Tonkawa, Hanai, Kichai, Tawakoni, Delaware, Shawnee, and some of the Comanche Indians. The localities included are Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Records
Records of the Southern Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1832-1870, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M640. This set of microfilm of the records of the Southern Superintendency is also available at the and its FamilySearch centers.

Letters received by the Office of Indian Affairs from the Southern Superintendency, 1851-1871, have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M234. Copies are available at the National Archives and at the and its FamilySearch centers on their microfilm roll numbers 1661563 thru 1661569.