Peoria Indians

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



Tribal Headquarters
Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma 118 South Eight Tribes Trail Miami, OK 74354 Phone: 918-540-2535 Website

Population: 1984: Total enrollment 2,000.

Brief Timeline
1763: Many of the tribe live in Peoria, Illinois

Early 1800: The tribe lived in southern Missouri

Treaty of Caster Hill (Missouri) Created a reserve on the Osage river in Kansas.

1867: Removed from Kansas to northeastern corner of Indian Territory in Oklahoma

1868: surviving Illinois Indians, Peoria and Kashashio moved to northeast Oklahoma under the name Peoria.

1959: Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma Terminated, Tribal membership 640, No Tribal land

Additional References to the History of the Tribe
Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Peoria tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods.

Reservations
From the mid-1800s, the official policy of the United States government toward the Native American was to confine each tribe to a specific parcel of land called a reservation. Agencies were established on or near each reservation. A government representative, usually called an agent (or superintendent) was assigned to each agency. Their duties included maintaining the peace, making payments to the Native Americans based on the stipulations of the treaties with each tribe, and providing a means of communication between the native population and the federal government.

Sometimes, a single agency had jurisdiction over more than one reservation. And sometimes, if the tribal population and land area required it, an agency may have included sub-agencies.

The boundaries of reservations, over time, have changed. Usually, that means the reservations have been reduced in size. Sometimes, especially during the later policy of "termination," the official status of reservations was ended altogether.

The following list of reservations has been compiled from the National Atlas of the United States of America, the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America , and other sources. There are no current federally-recognized reservations in Illinois.

Records
The majority of records of individuals were those created by the agencies. Some records may be available to tribal members through the tribal headquarters.They were (and are) the local office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and were charged with maintaining records of the activities of those under their responsibility. Among these records are:


 * Allotment records
 * Annuity rolls
 * Census records
 * Correspondence
 * Health records
 * Reports
 * School census and records
 * Vital records

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 were created by these offices.

The following list of agencies that have operated or now exist in Illinois has been compiled from Hill's Office of Indian Affairs..., Hill's Guide to Records in the National Archives Relating to American Indians , and others.

Osage River Agency

Neosho Agency

Quapaw Agency

Land Records
Tribally owned land: 38.79 acres

Treaties

 * 1818September 25, Edwardsville, Illinois, Cessions
 * 1832 October 27, Casster Hill, St. Louis, Missouri, with the Kaskaskia,cession, reservation
 * 1854 May 30, withthe Peoria, Etc., cession, reservation
 * 1867 February 23, Washington D.C., with the Seneca, Mixed Seneca, Shawnee, Quapaw, Etc.,cession, land to Ottawa university,removal

Superintendencies
St. Louis Superintendency

Central Superintendency

Important Websites

 * Constitution and By-Laws of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
 * Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma Official Website
 * Peoria Tribe Wikipedia