Fort Peck Indian Agency (Montana)

Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

The Fort Peck Indian Agency is the administrative office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana. Its supervising office is the Billings Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Assiniboin, Sioux,Assiniboine and Sioux

History
The Fort Peck Agency was the successor to the Milk River Agency in Montana and since 1874 has been responsible for Assiniboin and Sioux (mostly Yanktonai) Indians.

Agents and Appointment Dates
Lt. George E. Ford, April 14, 1870; A.S. Reed September 14, 1870, Andrew J. Simmons January 17, 1871 and July 233, 1872, William W. Alderson. September 1, 1873,Thomas J. Mitchell. November 10, 1875, Wellington Bird. March 27, 1877, and Nathan S. Porter. May 23, 1879

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 historical records of this agency are housed in the Rocky Mountain Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Denver, Colorado. Records in that collection which may be of assistance to the genealogist include:


 * Records of birth, death, marriages, adoption, and divorce, 1882-1920
 * Land patents, 1914-1918
 * List of Turtle Mountain half breeds, 1881
 * List of allottees, no date
 * List of Assiniboine school children, 1910
 * School census, 1916

Many more records of lesser genealogical value are also in this collection.

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 Fort Peck Agency, 1880-1900, are on rolls 14-15 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 ).

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1891-1895, 1897-1908, and from 1912 thru 1940. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 151 thru 160. 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.

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Fort Peck Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Fort Peck Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 210, Fort Peck Agency, in Valley County, Montana.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Fort Peck Agency, 1907-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 52-53, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their.

Records Available through the Family History Library
Proposed Assiniboine Membership Roll, 1973. FHL film: 1036884 item 2

Vital Records - Census supplemental rolls 1925-1932 FHL film: 576847