Fort Berthold Indian Agency (North Dakota)

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

The Fort Berthold Agency is a currently operating agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the Fort Berthold Reservation. Its supervising office is the Aberdeen Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Arikara, Grosventre, Mandan, Assiniboin, Crow

History
The Fort Berthold Agency was established in 1864 from a division of the Upper Missouri Agency. At that time, the Arikara, Grosventre, Mandan, Assiniboin, and Crow Indians living near Fort Berthold on the Missouri River were under the jurisdiction of the Fort Berthold Agency. The Assiniboin, Crow, and some of the Grosventres were assigned to other agencies in 1869 and 1870. It is located in Newton, North Dakota.

Agents and Appointment Dates
Mahlon Wilkinson March 2, 1864, Capt. Walter Clifford June 25, 1869, John E. Tappan February 17, 1871, Lyman B. Sperry September 22, 1873, Charles W. Darling September 23, 1875, Edwin H. Alden November 20, 1876, Thomas P. Ellis September 26, 1878, Robert S. Gardner (special) August 31, 1879, and Jocob Kauffman April 16, 1880

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 records of Fort Berthold Agency have been transferred to the Central Plains Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Kansas City. These agency records include many administrative files which have few references to individual Indians. However, the following records identified by Archives records inventories, may have great value to the family historian:


 * Record of employees, 1864-1910
 * Census records, 1877-1940
 * Vital statistics, 1888-1890, 1901-1910, 1926-1950
 * Allotment records, 1893, 1909-1910, 1944-1949
 * Register of families, ca. 1898-1912
 * Annuity payrolls and ledgers, 1911-1912, 1917-1918
 * Heirship records, 1916-1921, 1946

Many of these records have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and at their many family history centers (their )

Letters received by the Office of Indian Affairs from the Fort Berthold Agency, 1867-1880, have been microfilmed 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 (their ).

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 Berthold Agency, 1873-1900, are on roll 13 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 1889-1893 and from 1895 thru 1939. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 132 thru 136. 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 Berthold Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Fort Berthold Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 261, Fort Berthold Agency, in McLean County, North Dakota.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Fort Berthold Agency, 1907-1938, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 46-47, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their.

Listings of the Indians living on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in 1915 and 1925 are included in the state census of North Dakota. The major portion of the 1915 enumeration is filed under "Fort Berthall (sic) Indian Reservation" in McLean County. However, there are many Indian families and individuals enumerated in other townships of McLean County and in other counties, as well. The 1925 census includes listings for the Fort Berthold Reservation filed under the subdivisions of "Tribe Arickara," "Tribe Gros Ventre," and "Tribe Mandan."