Post by ephriam on Jan 21, 2011 9:47:00 GMT -5
I wanted to let readers know that the 1881 census for the Standing Rock Agency, known informally as the Sitting Bull Surrender Census, has just been published by the South Dakota Historical Society Press. www.sdshspress.com/index.php?&id=220&action=912
This census was the result of a pioneering effort by the U.S. Census Bureau to enumerate for the first time every Indian within the continental United States. Until recently, historians believed that this census effort had largely failed, resulting in just a small handful of documents. But I found an old ledger book at the National Archives buried within the records of the Census Bureau showing that enumerations were completed for nearly every reservation in the U.S. Unfortunately, it appears that most of these records were destroyed in a fire at the Census office in 1896.
Instructions for taking the census required the enumerator to create three copies, one of which was to be kept at the Indian agent's office. Several of these 1881 census records have been found within the local reservation records. To create this book, I combined a part of the Standing Rock census that survived from the fire in Washington D.C. with a partial copy found in the reservation records at the Kansas City Regional Archives to produce a nearly complete copy of the 1881 census for this reservation. This is the earliest census record for any Lakota reservation, listing every man, woman and child, arranged by tribe and by tiyospaye. If you are searching for information about relatives at Standing Rock, this is a must for your library. Hope you enjoy!
This census was the result of a pioneering effort by the U.S. Census Bureau to enumerate for the first time every Indian within the continental United States. Until recently, historians believed that this census effort had largely failed, resulting in just a small handful of documents. But I found an old ledger book at the National Archives buried within the records of the Census Bureau showing that enumerations were completed for nearly every reservation in the U.S. Unfortunately, it appears that most of these records were destroyed in a fire at the Census office in 1896.
Instructions for taking the census required the enumerator to create three copies, one of which was to be kept at the Indian agent's office. Several of these 1881 census records have been found within the local reservation records. To create this book, I combined a part of the Standing Rock census that survived from the fire in Washington D.C. with a partial copy found in the reservation records at the Kansas City Regional Archives to produce a nearly complete copy of the 1881 census for this reservation. This is the earliest census record for any Lakota reservation, listing every man, woman and child, arranged by tribe and by tiyospaye. If you are searching for information about relatives at Standing Rock, this is a must for your library. Hope you enjoy!