Uintah and Ouray Indian Agency (Utah)

The Uintah &amp; Ouray Agency is a currently operating agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Its supervising office is the Phoenix Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Uinta, White River, and Uncompahgre (Tabaquache) Bands of Ute; Paiute

History
The Uintah and Ouray Agency was established in the Uintah Valley in 1865. It was a continuation of the earlier Spanish Fork-Uintah Valley Agency. Several agents operated under the Utah Superintendency from 1849 to 1870, when the Superintendency was abolished. By 1869, the Uintah Valley Agency was the only one left in Utah and it reported directly to the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC. The name was changed to Uintah and Ouray Agency in 1886.

The Uintah and Ouray Agency primarily had jurisdiction for the Uinta, White River, and Uncompahgre (Tabaquache) Ute Indians. In 1939, the Paiute Agency was also assigned to the Uintah and Ouray 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 (for the tribe and tribal members) were created by and maintained by the agencies.

A few of the records of the Uintah and Ouray Agency, 1897-1989, have been transferred to the Rocky Mountain Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Denver. These records are primarily administrative files regarding financial matters, but there are some other records of particular value to family history researchers, including:


 * Registers of Indian Families, 1904-1905
 * Allotment Records, 1905-1941
 * Health Registers, 1920-1935
 * Annuity Rolls, 1921-1949
 * Births and Deaths, 1922-1927

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 Uintah and Ouray Agency, 1886-1900, are on roll 54 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 ). Reports exist for the Uintah Agency, 1882-1883 and for the Ouray Agency, 1883-1887, as well.

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

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Uintah and Ouray Agency, 1907-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 158-59, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (their.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1885-1889, 1891-1892, 1894-1940, and 1942-1944. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 608 thru 615. 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.

Records Available through the Family History Library
Vital Records from Indian Census Rolls - above


 * Birth and Death records 1924-1932 FHL film 583072
 * Census and genealogical records, 1835-1946. FHL Film: 1033685 Item 6
 * 1944 Census FHL film: 001761
 * Family Records of Uintah and White River Utes, 1867-1948. FHL Film: 1035932 Item 3 or Book: 970.3 Ut2f
 * Land Division 1953. FHL film: 001762
 * Proposed Membership Rolls 1955. FHL Book:970.1 Al no. 38
 * School Records 1916-1954. FHL Film: 1275619 and 275620
 * Vital RecordsPre 1953. FHL Film: 001763-001769 or FHL Book: 970.3 Ut2v