Northern Navajo Indian Agency (Arizona)

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Navajo

History
The original Navajo Agency was established in 1852 for the Navajo Indians in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. After 1901, this agency was gradually divided into several independent agencies. One of those was the Northern Navajo Agency which operated from at least 1903 to 1935. The agency was also known as the Shiprock Agency or Subagency. In 1935, the independent agencies were consolidated into one agency called the Navajo Service, with headquarters in Window Rock, Arizona.

In 1949, the Window Rock Area Office was established and a Navajo Agency was created under the Area Office. Some of the former agencies were reduced to subagency status at that time.

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 correspondence and other records for the Northern Navajo Agency, 1903-1912 and 1949-1955 are in the Pacific Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Laguna Niguel. Additional records for the Northern Navajo Agency, 1933-1945, are also in the National Archives Rocky Mountain Region (Denver).

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Northern Navajo Agency, 1927-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Roll 93, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1930 thru 1935. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 303 thru 307. Copies of these records are also available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the FamilySearch Library and its FamilySearch centers (their ). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

Records Available through the FamilySearch Library

 * 1937 Census Northern Navajo reservation FS Library film 579687 (this film is part of the above collection)

The collection of Birth and Death records below are supplemental records found in the American Indian Census Rolls above.


 * Birth and Death, 1928-1932, FS Library film 579715
 * Birth and Death, 1930-1933, FS Library film 579716
 * Birth and Death, 1929-1935, FS Library film 579717