Indian Archives Microfilm Guide Series 12: Sac and Fox and Shawnee Agency Records Compiled by Katie Bush Series 12: Sac and Fox-Shawnee Agency Records Introduction Under terms of a treaty with the United States concluded on Feb. 18, 1867 (15 Stat. 495) the Sac and Fox of the Mississippi ceded about 157,000 acres of their land in Kansas in exchange for a new reservation of 750 square miles in Indian Territory between the Cimarron and North Canadian Rivers West of the Creek Nation. On Nov. 25, 1869, 387 tribal members began the move to their new home arriving nineteen days later. One band under Chief Mo-Ho-Ko-Ho remained in Kansas and the Sac and Fox of the Missouri continued to live at the Great Nemaha Agency in Nebraska near the Iowas with whom they had been associated for many years. The new agency continued to operate under the Central Superintendency and was located about 6 miles south of the present town of Stroud, OK. The agent, Thomas Miller, had also under his jurisdiction 467 Absentee Shawnees who were living 30 miles southwest of the Sac and Fox Agency. They were located on lands they had occupied before the Civil War. Many had remained loyal to the Union and had sought shelter in the North. After the war, they returned to their old territory and were later joined by the Black Bob Band of Shawnees from Kansas. A reservation was established for the Shawnees by Act of Congress, May 23, 1872 (Stat. L, xvii, 159). After the cession of their homelands in Illinois in 1819, the Kickapoo bands separated and migrated to different areas with some going to Texas and others to Mexico. The Texas bands came to Indian Territory before the Civil War in two groups, one settling on Creek and the other on Choctaw lands. Later, many of them joined the Kickapoos living in Mexico. An effort was made under the acts of July 15, 1870, Mar. 3, 1871, and June 22, 1874 to have the Mexican Kickapoos and others on the borders of Texas move to a reservation which would be established for them in Indian Territory. A commission was appointed which succeeded in getting some 300-400 to consent to move. By 1873, these Mexican Kickapoos had begun to arrive at the Sac and Fox Agency. Their reservation was located between the South Canadian and Deep Fork Rivers west of the Sac and Fox Reservation. The Potawatomi of the Woods under a treaty of Nov. 15, 1861 (12 Stat. 1191) had received allotments in severalty in Kansas. A number accepted allotments and became citizens of the United States, then becoming known as Citizen Potawatomi. Many of them soon sold their allotments and began to plan the purchase of a new reservation in Indian Territory. A Feb. 27, 1867 treaty (15 Stat. 531) provided for this purchase. A thirty mile square reservation was selected west of the Seminole Nation between the North and South Canadian Rivers and 250 Citizen Potawatomi moved into the area in 1876 and 1877. The Potawatomi lands selected encroached on those of the Absentee Shawnees’ prewar settlement claims. To right this situation, Congress on May 23, 1872 passed an act (Stat. L, xvii, 159) permitting the Absentee Shawnees to select allotments on the Potawatomi Reserve. There was considerable opposition, and Sam Warrior’s Band comprising about 1/3 of the tribe moved to an area west of the Kickapoos. In 1880, Agent John S. Shorb reported that in addition to the above tribes, 60 members of Black Bob’s Band of Shawnee and 46 Iowas from the Great Nemaha Agency were enrolled with government permission at the agency with 35 Otoes who had accompanied them. Two years later, additional members of the Iowa tribe were in residence. The Iowa Reservation, set aside for them by executive order, dated Aug. 15, 1883, was located between the Cimarron and the Deep Fork Rivers west of the Sac and Fox Reservation. 92 Tonkawas from Fort Griffin, TX arrived at the agency on Oct. 22, 1884; they stay until June of the following year when they were removed to the Oakland Agency to the reservation formerly occupied by the Nez Perce. The final group to be added to the Sac and Fox Agency was 113 members of 1 the Sac and Fox who had remained in Kansas under their chief Mo-Ko-Ho-Ki; they were brought to the agency in Nov. 1886. In a series of agreements in 1890, resulting from implementation of the Dawes Act, all of the tribes within the Sac and Fox Agency, except the Kickapoos, had ceded their lands to the United States and accepted allotments in severalty. The Sac and Fox, Iowa, Potawatomi, and Shawnee lands were opened to non-Indian settlement on Sep. 22, 1891. The agency site at that time became a part of Oklahoma Territory. The Kickapoo were allotted later and had their lands opened to settlement on May 23, 1895. In Apr. 1896, a special Agent, Martin J. Bentley, was appointed to handle the affairs of the band of Mexican Kickapoos known as the “Kicking” Kickapoos. Mr. Bentley assumed charge of the “Progressive” Kickapoos and the Big Jim Band of Absentee Shawnee a year or so later with an agency office located near the town of Shawnee. In 1901, the Sac and Fox Agency was divided. The Sac and Fox Agency itself remained at the old site near Stroud with jurisdiction over the Sac and Fox and the Iowa. The Shawnee, Potawatomi, and Kickapoo Agency (sometimes simply called the Shawnee Agency)_ was established about 2 miles south of Shawnee, Oklahoma. The agencies continued their separate existence until 1919 when they were merged becoming the Shawnee Agency. History of the Records In 1933, a survey of Indian tribal records in Oklahoma revealed that the files of the Shawnee and the old Sac and Fox agencies had been sadly neglected, and the lack of space for storing them properly had resulted in much loss. Charles Eggers, Superintendent of the Shawnee Agency, reported that most of the non-current records of his agency were boxed in a storehouse. The papers of the old Sac and Fox Agency were in the loft of a warehouse which was also used for storing vegetables. The roof of the building leaked and the papers were in danger of destruction from moisture. Following the passage of the Congressional Act of Mar. 27, 1934 (H. R. 5631 Public No. 133) which placed the tribal records in the custody of the Oklahoma Historical Society, 617 bound volumes and some 485,362 pages of documents of the Sac and Fox and Shawnee Agencies were brought to the Society’s Indian Archives Division. The records cover a time span of 1830s to 1929 with some material dating to the mid-1930s. Besides the resident tribes’ records, there are files of other tribes’ records brought from the Sac and Fox Agency in Kansas. They are listed below with name of tribe, years covered by the correspondence and records, and the number of pages. Chippewa of Swan Creek and Black River, and Muncie (Munsee) Indians 1854-1901 (52) Christian Indians 1858-1864 (25) Oneida Indians 1902 (2) Otoe Indians 1880-1921 (55) Ottawa Indians 1838-1908 (102) The majority of the Otoes listed in the table resided on the Otoe Reservation under the Otoe Agency. Later they were under the jurisdiction of the Pawnee and Ponca Agencies. Some intermarried among the Iowa and others at the Sac and Fox Agency. This file refers to them and the earlier group who came from the Great Nemaha Agency in Nebraska. When brought to the Historical Society, the Sac and Fox and Shawnee Agency records were in various states of order, and it was decided by Dr. Grant Foreman of the Society’s Board of Directors and Mrs. Rella Looney, Archivist (1929-1974) to place them in usable research categories according to subject. This order in many files varied from their original agency filing order which could not be ascertained. Within each category, documents were filed chronologically and the subject categories were placed in file cases or shelved in alphabetical order under each agency. The records have proved to have had extensive research value and use to students of Indian culture and history in the past 42 years. Use of the records has been facilitated by an unpublished 2 inventory of the categories within each agencies’ holdings. This includes the name of the agency, the subject category, the inclusive dates, numbers of pages contained within each group and location within the archives. In addition, indexing of the records has continued, but is as yet incomplete. In microfilming these documents, an attempt has been made to combine related categories, i.e. land allotment, leases, and sales. This will not follow the present organization within the Archives, but it is thought that it will be the most convenient arrangement for research use. 3 4 SFSA 1 Sac and Fox-Shawnee Agency Records: Census and Enrollment, 1865-1924 Sac and Fox/Shawnee-Census – Miscellaneous Letters: Aug. 20, 1872-Apr. 5, 1924 o Letters and Documents sent and received, correspondence relating to census. Sac and Fox/Shawnee-Census – Miscellaneous Letters: Dec. 6, 1865-May 5, 1924 o Letters and Documents sent and received, correspondence relating to census. Sac and Fox/Shawnee-Census-Iowa Indians: 1890-1903 o Census of the Iowa Indian: 1903 pages 26-29 o Census of the Iowa Indians of Sac and Fox Agency, Oklahoma, taken by Edward L. Thomas, U.