Siletz Indian Agency (Oregon)

The Siletz Agency is a currently operating agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Its supervising office is the Portland Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Joshua, Sixes (Kwatami), Chetco, Rogue River, Chastacosta, and Klamath

History
The Siletz Agency was established in 1856 on the Siletz River on the Coast Reservation near Toledo. When the Roseburg Agency was abolished in 1918, some of the nonreservation Indians in Oregon were assigned to the Siletz Agency. In 1925, the Siletz Agency was consolidated with the Salem or Chemawa School, which assumed its duties. In 1938, the Grand Ronde-Siletz Agency was established, relieving the school of its agency duties. This agency operated until 1956, when it was abolished.

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.

Most of the records for the Siletz Agency appear to have been carried down as separate records when its duties were carried out by the Salem School. When the Grand Ronde-Siletz Agency was established, again the records appear to have gone into the holdings of the new agency and are among the records of that consolidated agency now housed in the Pacific Alaska Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Seattle. Included among these records for the Siletz Agency are:


 * School attendance records, 1892-1916
 * Land allotment records, 1887-1894

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 Siletz Agency, 1881-1899, are on roll 49 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 1885-1925. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 505-506. 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 Siletz Indian Reservation. The census includes the non-Indian employees of the Siletz Agency, as well as many pages of Indian Population Schedules for the native population of the Reservation. They are recorded as District 178, Siletz Indian Reservation, in Lincoln County, Oregon.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Siletz Agency, 1907-1925, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Roll 139, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their.