Records of the Central Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1813-1878

Notes

The records of the Central Superintendenct relate to almost all aspects of Indian administration within its jurisdiction. There are documents relating to negotiation and enforcement of treaties; land surveys and allotments; Indian removal; annuity and other payments; Indian delegations; intrusions on Indian lands; traders and licenses, enforcement of federal laws and regulations; hostilities and military operations; depredation claims; location of agencies; school attendance and curricula; medical treatment; production at blacksmith, gunsmith, and wheelwright shops; construction and repair of buildings; and purchase and transportation of goods and supplies.

The Central Superintendency succeeded the St. Louis Superintendency in 1851. These records include the records of the St. Louis Superintendency, 1813-1850. The Central Superintendency originally was responsible for most of the Indians in what is now Kansas and Nebraska, and in the upper regions of the Missouri, Platte, and Arkansas Rivers in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Colorado.

Original agencies and tribes of Indians assigned to them were the Council Bluffs Agency, at Bellevue, Nebraska, for the Oto, Missouri, and Omaha and Pawnee in Nebraska; Great Nemaha Agency, about five miles south of of Iowa Point, Kansas, for the Iowa, Kickapoo, and Sac and Fox of the Missouri in northeastern Kansas and southeastern Nebraska; Kansas Agency for Delaware, Shawnee, Stockbridge, Munsee, and Wyandot; Osage River Agency, at Paoli, Kansas, for the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, Piankeshaw, and Miami in eastern Kansas; Potawatomi Agency for the Potawatomi and Kansas, or Kaw, in eastern Kansas; Sac and Fox Agency, in Kansas, for the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Sac and Fox in eastern Kansas; Upper Missouri Agency for the Arikara, Mandan, Assiniboin, Crow, Dakota, and some of the Grosventre, Blackfeet, Blood, and Piegan; Upper Platte Agency for the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache and Dakota. Several agency changes occurred in 1855. The Kansas Agency was divided into the Delaware Agency for the Stockbridge and Munsee and the Shawnee Agency for the Shawnee and Wyandot. A new Kansas Agency was established at Council Grove, Kansas, on the Neosho River for the Kaw. A separate Kickapoo Agency was established. The Upper Arkansas Agency was established for the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache and.

Comanche in eastern Colorado and western Kansas. The Blackfeet Agency was created at Fort Benton in present-day Montana with responsibility for the Blackfeet, Blood, Piegan, and Grosventre. The Council Bluffs Agency was discontinued in 1856, and the Oto, Missouri, and Pawnee were assigned to the new Oto Agency in the Big Blue River Valley in southern Nebraska. The Omaha were placed under a separate Omaha Agency near Decatur, Nebraska. In 1861 the Yankton, Ponca, and Upper Missouri Agencies were transferred to the Dakota Superintendency. The Ottawa Agency was established in 1863 for the Ottawa and Chippewa. Attached to the Wichita Agency were the Wichita, Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, Tonkawa, Hanai, Kichai, Tawakoni, and Delaware. The Kiowa Agency was established for the Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache and Comanche in western Kansas. The Upper Arkansas Agency remained with its headquarters in Kansas. The agencies of the five civilized tribes formed a consolidated or Union Agency in 1874. There were two agencies known as the Neosho Agency. One originally had responsibility for the Osage in southern Kansas and the Quapaw, Seneca and mixed band of Seneca and Shawnee who lived on reserves east of the Neosho River in Indian Territory. After February, 1867, Wyandot, Ottawa, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, and Piankeshaw were assigned.

to the Neosho Agency. This branch was subordinate to the original Neosho Agency, which was referred to as the Osage Agency. In 1876 the Central Superintendency received the Pawnee Agency, which had been established in Nebraska; the Ponca Agency was in Nebraska, and the Yankton Agency for the Yankton Sioux was near Greenwood in South Dakota.

Microfilm of records at the National Archives, Washington, District of Columbia.

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