Pine Ridge Indian Agency (South Dakota)

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

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Sioux, Cheyenn, Arapaho

History
The Red Cloud Agency was established in 1871 on the North Platte River near Fort Laramie in eastern Wyoming, primarily for the the Oglala Sioux Indians. The agency was moved in 1873 to a site in what is now northeastern Nebraska, on the White River. In 1877, it was moved to the Missouri River at the mouth of Medicine Creek in what is now South Dakota. In 1878, it moved to White Clay Creek and was renamed the Pine Ridge Agency.

Records
Some records for the Pine Ridge Agency are in the Central Plains Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Kansas City, including:


 * Annuity and allotment records, 1877-1941
 * School census records, 1895-1953
 * Strudent folders, 1921-1955
 * Criminal case files, 1927-1960
 * School attendance and enrollment records, 1930-1943
 * And other administrative and fiscal records, 1871-1967

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 Pine Ridge Agency, 1880-1895 and 1897-1900, are on rolls 26-37 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 1617709-1617710).

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1887, 1886-1888, 1890, 1892-1905, 1907, 1913, 1915-1939, and 1942-1943. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 362 thru 384. 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 roll numbers 580741-580763). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Pine Ridge Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Pine Ridge Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 46, Pine Ridge Agency], in Shannon County, South Dakota.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Pine Ridge Agency, 1907-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, rolls 106-107, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (their microfilm numbers 1724324-1724325).