Carson Valley Indian Agency (Nevada)

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency

 * Paiute
 * Shoshone
 * Washo

History
The Carson Valley Agency was established in 1858 under the Utah Superintendency. Its primary responsibility was for the Paiute and Washo Indians in what became Western Nevada. Carson Valley Agency was transferred to the Nevada Superintendency in 1861, when Nevada became a separate territory. It continued as an agency, part of the time under the name of the Nevada Agency. In 1925, the Reno Agency (which had assumed jurisdiction over the Pyramid Lake Agency and Digger Agency in 1921) and the Carson School, were consolidated to form the new Carson Agency. This office currently operates under the name of the Western Nevada 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.

Some of the administrative files from the Carson Agency, 1912-1953, have been transferred to the Pacific Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in San Francisco.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1909 and 1925-1939. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 18 thru 21. 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.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Carson Valley Agency and School, 1910-1935, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Rolls 9-11, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City (their ).