Fort Yuma Indian Agency (California)

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

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Yuma, Quechan, Cocopah

History
Although it was assumed that Fort Yuma Agency, during its early years, was in Arizona, it was actually located across the Colorado River in the extreme southeastern corner of California (see Fort Yuma Indian Agency in California).

Fort Yuma initially was a military post. A reservation was established for the Yuma Indians in 1884. The Indians on this reservation were supervised by the Colorado River Agency, and later by the Tule River Agency.

A school was established, at first by the Catholic Sisters, in about 1880. The school was obtained by the federal government in 1895 and made a reservation boarding school. In 1900, the school was given agency status.

The Fort Yuma Agency was transferred to the Colorado River Agency, 1 August 1935, and made a subagency.

For a good history of 19th Century Fort Yuma, California, see Historic California Posts: Fort Yuma -- http://www.militarymuseum.org/FtYuma.html

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.

Some records of the Fort Yuma Agency are in the Pacific Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) inLos Angeles, including:


 * Education records, 1913-1928
 * Register of births and deaths, 1915-1925
 * Allotment files, 1923-1935
 * Census records, n.d.
 * Other administrative records, 1907-1951

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Fort Yuma Agency, 1905-1937, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 55-56, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their.

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Yuma Indian Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Fort Yuma Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 248, Yuma Indian Reservation, in San Diego County, California.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1905 and from 1915 thru 1935. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 165 thru 166. Copies of these records are also available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the FamilySearch Library and its family history centers (their ). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

A partial listing of the Indian residents in Yuma County, California in 1928 is available online.