Lamar Pokibro and Family, Bannock [cropped], National Archives Identifier 519254
March 11, 1824, is when the BIA was established administratively within the War Department. However, it wasn’t authorized by Congress until 1832. See What is the BIA's History?
This week's newsletter is supersized - read theweb version.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was established on March 11, 1824, to manage the United States government's relationship with federally recognized Native American tribes. Over its 200-year history, the BIA has created many records documenting its interactions with Native tribes and individuals. Many of these records are at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and they can be a rich source of information for family history, academic, and legal research.
The National Archives has the original treaties made between the United States government and Native American tribes. Correspondence from treaty commissioners and negotiators are some of the earliest records NARA has relating to Native American affairs.
Ratified Indian Treaty 30 was signed before the BIA’s official establishment and is an example of an early “treaty of friendship” that recognizes the sovereignty of Native Nations. The Chickasaw Nation granted the United States permission to build a road through their territory and agreed to
provide two “Assistants, Guides or Pilots” to assist the U.S. in laying out
the road. The U.S. agreed to compensate the Chickasaw with goods worth $700 and protect the Chickasaw against “the encroachments of unjust neighbours.” The Chickasaw retained rights to waterways that the road crossed. Explore more American Indian Treaties.
Read correspondence about this treaty:
Treaty instructions, which explain that the U.S.’s goal was (in part) to get the Chickasaw and others to cede land for the road
Letters reporting that the Chickasaw refused to cede their land
Despite treaty promises, the United States government forcibly removed many Native people from their homelands during the nineteenth century and concentrated them on reservations. NARA has maps and other records documenting the effects of the removal and reservation eras.
Map of Indian Reservations,1885, National Archives Identifier 100306991
Congress passed the General Allotment Act (also known as the Dawes Act) in 1887, which began to break up reservations, parceled land out to individual tribal members, and authorized sales of “surplus” lands to non-Natives. NARA’s BIA records include tribal census and enrollment records that the BIA used to determine who was eligible for an allotment, and related records like the Osage guardianship list. This list titled, Register of Guardians, is what started author David Gann’s foray into the topic that led to the book and the recent hit film Killers of the Flower Moon.
The BIA often compiled lists of tribal members in its jurisdiction, which can be a great source of genealogical information. Industrial surveys that the BIA took in the 1920s are also a rich source of information about Native families who lived on allotments. The surveys sought to catalog Native homes, family members, farming activity, health, and debt. These records are filled with lots of information, andthey can even include photographs!
Delphine Houle Crawford, National Archives Identifier 100382849
The BIA also records information about Native veterans from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and other conflicts. Native Americans have served in the U.S. military in every major conflict over the past 200 years and have some of the highest rates of military service among any ethnic group.
Left - Joseph Schildt and Harry Schildt, National Archives Identifier 37489858
The BIA recorded and documented students who attended federally run boarding schools, both on and off reservation, for Native Americans, from the early Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania to Mount Edgecumbe Boarding School decades later in Alaska. The records shed light on how early on the U.S. government used federal boarding schools to try to culturally assimilate Native people through forced removal and relocation of Native children. They document Native resistance to this assimilation and students’ experiences inside and outside of the classroom, and follow the gradual shift of the school’s missions, ending in either closure or transferring to tribal management in the latter part of the 20th century.
Four girls teams in Tri-State Indian School basketball tournament, 1929, National Archives Identifier 285699
Left: John Lecompte, CCC-ID Telephone Lineman, National Archives Identifier 57274986
Right: Enrollee Identification Card for Kenneth Barry, National Archives Identifier 12000915
Researchers can also find information in BIA records about individuals who worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps–Indian Division (CCC-ID) during the Great Depression. The CCC-ID undertook projects such as road and trail construction, weed and pest control, construction of telephone lines, planting of trees, and forest improvement work on many Native American reservations. BIA records about CCC-ID enrollees can include personal details about the enrollees like their place of birth and date of birth, and information about the work they did.
Left to right: Chemawa Indian School Track and Field Athlete, circa 1971, National Archives Identifier 5585775, Photograph of children and grounds of Carson/Stewart Indian School, National Archives Identifier 296123, Chemawa Indian School Student Band, The Meteors, circa 1971, National Archives Identifier 5585778, Andrew Knife in Full Headdress (Color), National Archives Identifier 12469096
A common frustration for users of the Catalogis searching for names of ordinary people. While Catalog descriptions may mention public figures or people who figure prominently in the records, they cannot list every person's name. Names may be found through the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) layer applied to digitized records, but results can vary. As a result you may need to try several different searches using different strategies when searching for a name.
Try searching on the person's full name in first name-last name as well as last name-first name order.
Place your name within quotes so that the Catalog searches the name in that exact order. A search for Abraham Lincoln would search for Abraham OR Lincoln while a search for “Abraham Lincoln” would search for Abraham AND Lincoln.
Search on the surname only. The records might only include a first initial or a variant spelling of the first name.
Search on variant spellings of the surname using OR, for example: Luchetti OR Lucetti.
Search on variant spellings of the first name, including "Americanized" versions, for example: Joseph Maggio OR Guiseppe Maggio.
If you are searching for a public figure, try a search of the name using the search tips provided above or do an Advanced Search, selecting Person or Organization from the Keyword dropdown menu.
Keep in mind that most descriptions in the National Archives Catalog do not include the names of individuals in that record. However, the National Archives still might have records about your ancestors. If you know an individual participated in an event, search for that search term and look within the records for the particular name.
Due to privacy concerns, military records from World War I to the present are not available in the Catalog. Please visit Veterans’ Service Records for information on how to order military records.
Most naturalization records are not available in the Catalog. If a naturalization took place in a Federal court the records will usually be in the National Archives facility serving the state in which theFederal courtis located.
These tips are in response to questions and concerns we’ve received through our survey. We’ll share more in future newsletters, so please consider filling out our survey about your experience with the National Archives Catalog.
If you are experiencing an error in the Catalog or have a question about the Citizen Archivist, please do not use this survey. Instead, please contact the Catalog staff at catalog@nara.gov.
Interested in researching the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) or other records of Native Americans? See what questions other History Hub users have already asked in History Hub’s Native American Records Community!
Make History Hub your first stop! You can ask—or answer—questions on History Hub, or see if your question has already been answered! Check out our featured edition for more details, information, and instructions about using History Hub for your research.
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