Scope and Contents

This collection is comprised of a census of the Oglala Sioux at the Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota, taken on June 30, 1904 by Indian agent Major John R. Brennan. The census consists of 938 handwritten entries on 36 leaves.

Biographical / Historical

The Pine Ridge Reservation was originally part of the Great Sioux Reservation established by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which encompassed approximately 60 million acres of parts of South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. In 1876, the U.S. government violated the treaty of 1868 by opening up 7.7 million acres of the Black Hills to homesteaders and private interests. In 1889 the government divided the remaining area of Great Sioux Reservation into seven separate reservations, including the Pine Ridge Reservation. Major John R. Brennan (d. 1919) was superintendent of Pine Ridge from 1900 to 1917.

Local Numbers

NAA MS 1999-24

Custodial History

Donated by Richard Pohrt.