Superintendencies of Indian Affairs

Superintendents of Indian Affairs for a specific locality existed from approximately 1803 until 1878, when the last Superintendency was abolished. After 1878, agents of the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported directly to the Commissioner's Office in Washington, DC.

A Superintendent of Indian Affairs was an administrator, communicating and overseeing the agents who worked directly with individual tribes. It was the responsibility of the superintendent to see that the agents were following official government policy. Records for Superintendencies exist in the National Archives and copies of many of them are also available in other research facilities.

Arizona Superintendency
Records of the Arizona Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1863-1873, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M734. Copies are also available at the Regional Archives at Laguna Niguel and Denver, and at the University of Arizona.

Central Superintendency
The records of the Central Superintendency relate to almost all aspects of Indian administration within its jurisdiction. There are documents relating to negotiation and enforcement of treaties; land surveys and allotments; Indian removal; annuity and other payments; Indian delegations; intrusions on Indian lands; traders and licenses, enforcement of federal laws and regulations; hostilities and military operations; depredation claims; location of agencies; school attendance and curricula; medical treatment; production at blacksmith, gunsmith, and wheelwright shops; construction and repair of buildings; and purchase and transportation of goods and supplies.

The Central Superintendency succeeded the St. Louis Superintendency in 1851. These records include the records of the St. Louis Superintendency, 1813-1850. The Central Superintendency originally was responsible for most of the Indians in what is now Kansas and Nebraska, and in the upper regions of the Missouri, Platte, and Arkansas Rivers in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Colorado.

Original agencies and tribes of Indians assigned to them were:


 * Council Bluffs Agency, at Bellevue, Nebraska -- for the Oto, Missouri, and Omaha and Pawnee in Nebraska
 * Great Nemaha Agency, about five miles south of Iowa Point, Kansas -- for the Iowa, Kickapoo, and Sac and Fox of the Missouri in northeastern Kansas and southeastern Nebraska
 * Kansas Agency -- for Delaware, Shawnee, Stockbridge, Munsee, and Wyandot
 * Osage River Agency, at Paoli, Kansas -- for the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, Piankeshaw, and Miami in eastern Kansas
 * Potawatomi Agency -- for the Potawatomi and Kansas, or Kaw, in eastern Kansas
 * Sac and Fox Agency, in Kansas -- for the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Sac and Fox in eastern Kansas
 * Upper Missouri Agency -- for the Arikara, Mandan, Assiniboin, Crow, Dakota, and some of the Gros Ventre, Blackfeet, Blood, and Piegan
 * Upper Platte Agency for the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache and Dakota.

Several agency changes occurred in 1855.


 * The Kansas Agency was divided into the Delaware Agency for the Stockbridge and Munsee and the Shawnee Agency for the Shawnee and Wyandot.
 * A new Kansas Agency was established at Council Grove, Kansas, on the Neosho River for the Kaw.
 * A separate Kickapoo Agency was established.
 * The Upper Arkansas Agency was established for the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache and Comanche in eastern Colorado and western Kansas.
 * The Blackfeet Agency was created at Fort Benton in present-day Montana with responsibility for the Blackfeet, Blood, Piegan, and Gros Ventre.
 * The Council Bluffs Agency was discontinued in 1856, and the Oto, Missouri, and Pawnee were assigned to the new Oto Agency in the Big Blue River Valley in southern Nebraska.
 * The Omaha were placed under a separate Omaha Agency near Decatur, Nebraska.

In 1861 the Yankton, Ponca, and Upper Missouri Agencies were transferred to the Dakota Superintendency.

The Ottawa Agency was established in 1863 for the Ottawa and Chippewa. Attached to the Wichita Agency were the Wichita, Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, Tonkawa, Hanai, Kichai, Tawakoni, and Delaware. The Kiowa Agency was established for the Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache and Comanche in western Kansas. The Upper Arkansas Agency remained with its headquarters in Kansas.

The agencies of the five civilized tribes formed a consolidated or Union Agency in 1874.

There were two agencies known as the Neosho Agency. One originally had responsibility for the Osage in southern Kansas and the Quapaw, Seneca and mixed band of Seneca and Shawnee who lived on reserves east of the Neosho River in Indian Territory. After February, 1867, Wyandot, Ottawa, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, and Piankeshaw were assigned to the Neosho Agency. This branch was subordinate to the original Neosho Agency, which was referred to as the Osage Agency.

In 1876 the Central Superintendency received the Pawnee Agency, which had been established in Nebraska; the Ponca Agency was in Nebraska, and the Yankton Agency for the Yankton Sioux was near Greenwood in South Dakota.

Records cover 1813-1850, when it was known at the St. Louis Superintendency and 1851-1878, while it operated under the name of the Central Superintendency. The collection of records for this Superintency has been microfilmed by the National Archives under their Microcopy Number M856. Copies are available at the National Archives, and the Kansas City, Fort Worth, and Seattle Regional Archives and at the Kansas State Historical Society. This same set of microfilm of the records of the Central Superintendency are also available at the Family History Library and its family history centers.

Letters received by the Office of Indian Affairs from the Central Superintendency, 1851-1880, have been mircofilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M234. Copies are available at the National Archives and at the Family History Library and its family history centers on their microfilm roll numbers 1660785 thru 1660800.

Dakota Superintendency
Records of the Dakota Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1860-1878, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M1016. Copies are also available at the Denver Regional Archives and at the University of Arizona.

Idaho Superintendency
Records of the Idaho Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1863-1870, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M832. Copies are also available at the Seattle Regional Archives.

Michigan Superintendency and Mackinac Agency
Records of the Michigan Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1814-1882, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M1. Copies are also available at the Chicago and San Francisco Regional Archives.

Minnesota Superintendency
Records of the Minnesota Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1849-1856, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M842. Copies are also availabel at the Chicago Regional Archives.

Montana Superintendency
Records of the Montana Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1867-1873, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M833. Copies are also available at the Denver and Seattle Regional Archives

Nevada Superintendency
Records of the Nevada Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1869-1870, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M837. Copies are also available at the San Francisco REgional Archives.

New Mexico Superintendency
Records of the New Mexico Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1849-1880, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number T21. Copies are also available at the Denver Regional Archives and the University of Arizona.

Northern Superintendency
Records of the Northern Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1851-1876, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M1166.

Oregon Superintendency
Records of the Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1848-1873, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M2. Copies are also available at the Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle Regional Archives.

Southern Superintendency
Records of the Southern Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1853-1870, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M640.

St. Louis Superintendency
This was the forerunner to the Central Superintendency and operated from 1813 to 1850. Records are included in the records of the Central Superintendency (see above). Copies are also available on microfilm at the University of Arizona.

Utah Superintendency
Records of the Utah Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1853-1874, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M834. Copies are also available at the Denver and San Francisco Regional Archives.

Washington Superintendency
Records of the Washington Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1853-1874, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M5. Copies are also available at the Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle Regional Archives.

Wisconsin Superintendency
Records of the Wisconsin Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1836-1848, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M951. Copies are also available at the Chicago Regional Archives.

Wyoming Superintendency
Records of the Wyoming Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1870, are at the National Archives and have been microfilmed as their Microcopy Number M1016. Copies are also available at the Denver Regional Archives.