The records of the offices of surveyors general, now largely in the public survey offices mentioned above, are similar for each office. They include field notes of surveys, survey plats, maps, contracts with deputy surveyors, accounts, annual reports, records of private surveys, correspondence, and records of donation claims. Most of the records of the office of the surveyor general of California were destroyed in the fire that followed the earthquake of 1906. Though the records of the old surveyors general are largely duplicated in the records of the General Land Office, some materials--including part of the correspondence and other records of a special nature--are not duplicated and are of value for studies of the States. Records of District Land Offices Land offices, considerably more numerous than offices of surveyors general, were scattered throughout the public-land States of the South and the Upper Mississippi Valley and in the States and Territories west of the river. These offices were staffed by registers and receivers, who dispensed information and made initial contacts with applicants for land. The registers accepted and examined applications for land and kept records of entries; the receivers accepted payments for fees and land purchases, acted as Government disbursing agents, and deposited surplus funds. These officials administered oaths, rendered decisions in contested cases, and investigated trespassing on timber lands. They corresponded frequently with the Commissioner of the General Land Office and submitted to him case papers and regular returns regarding the business of their offices. Their actions were subject to the approval of the General Land Office. A chronological list of land offices by State and Territory, giving dates of their establishment and removal or discontinuance, is in Donaldson, The Public Domain, p. 173176. Lists of Executive orders relating to land offices appear in the compilations prepared by the Historical Records Survey. Sketches of the land office history of each State are in the Survey of Federal Archives, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States, Series VIII, The Department of the Interior. The locations of offices in existence during the Civil War can be ascertained from the Official Register. Like the offices of surveyors general in Southern States, the land offices came under the control of State governments early in 1861. Some of the States established their own land offices and engaged in the sale and survey of lands. Land offices were reestablished under Federal control during 1865-66; the records of the former offices were recovered from the State authorities; and the U. S. registers and receivers were instructed to consider sales of land by the States during the war as null and void but to give preference rights to actual settlers who exhibited proof of settlement and cultivation. Transcriptions of some township plats and tract books were made for the Southern States after the war to replace records lost during the war. Records in Other Custody. --The policy of transferring records of land offices (like those of surveyors general) to the States was adopted, and the same acts of June 12, 1840, and Jan. 22, 1853, governed such transfers. When less than 100, 000 acres of unsold land remained within a land district, its business and records were transferred to another land office in the same State. Finally, on completion of the land office business, the records were transferred to agencies designated by the State for their reception. Most of the records for the public-land States east of the Rocky Mountains have thus been delivered to the States. In 11 States of the Far West where there are still public lands the records of the land offices are kept by field offices of the Bureau of Land Management. Offices of that bureau having such records are in the cities mentioned above as offices of the Field Surveying Service of the Bureau. Some records of the Los Angeles land office are in the Federal Records Center at Los Angeles; others--of Oregon and Washington--are in the Federal Records Center at Seattle. Most of the records have been retained by the specified offices of the Bureau, however, for they are needed for administration and are much consulted by Federal, State, and local officials and by the general public. All the land offices kept certain records, and--depending upon the presence of swamp lands, mineral lands, and railroad lands--some offices maintained other records. The records include tract books, township plats, correspondence, maps, accounts, selection lists of swamp lands, lists of railroad lands, registers of entries of mining lands, abstracts of declaratory statements, registers of certificates issued, and records pertaining to land sales, preemptions, land scrip, town lots, military land warrants, homestead entries, agricultural college scrip, donation claims, Indian allotments, and land patents. Information about records in both Federal and State custody is in Survey of Federal Archives, Inventory of Federal Archives in the States, Series VIII, The Department of the Interior. Real estate records are also in the offices of county recorders or registers of deeds. In administering the lands received from the Federal Government under acts of Congress, the States had to set up their own land offices, and records relating to these lands are in State custody. Information regarding State land records is in inventories published in the Annual Reports of the American Historical Association, from 1904 onward. OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS The direction of Indian affairs had been put under the War Department in 1789 and had continued there for 60 years. In 1824 a Bureau of Indian Affairs had been organized and in 1832 the newly named Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs had taken over the former Bureau's function of dispensing Indian annuities and the civilization fund, keeping accounts of such expenditures, and examining claims. In 1849 the Commissioner's functions were transferred to the Department of the Interior, and by the time of the Civil War the Office of the Commissioner had become known as the Office of Indian Affairs. Along with the transfer of functions to the Interior Department there were transferred the office divisions that were still in existence during the war--a Files and Records Division, a Civilization Division, a Finance Division, and a Land Division. A chief clerk had general supervision of the Office under the direction of the Commissioner. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs had a variety of duties under acts of Congress regulating intercourse with the Indian tribes. He was concerned with negotiating treaties with the Indians, issuing instructions to superintendents and agents and examining their accounts, supervising Indian lands, administering Indian trust funds, promoting education, paying annuities, suppressing the liquor traffic, controlling traders, aiding missions established by religious denominations, protecting Indians on reservations from white intruders, contracting for the transportation of Indian goods, and furnishing medical relief and supplies. Relations with the Indians deteriorated during the Civil War owing to the inability of the Government to keep adequate military forces on the frontier and to delays in the payment of annuities. As a result of the withdrawal early in the war of U. S. troops from the Indian Territory, where there was a concentration of Indians who had earlier been removed from Southern States east of the Mississippi, and as a result also of the activities of Confederate Indian agents, most of these Indians gave their allegiance to the Confederacy. The Chickasaw and Choctaw and part of the Seminole and Cherokee became Confederate allies. The Creeks were sharply divided; those who remained loyal to the United States were driven north into Kansas, accompanied by the Union faction of the Seminole. To Kansas also fled smaller numbers of Quapaws, Seneca, Shawnee, Cherokee, Delawares, and Kickapoos. Support had to be extended to these Indians by the Federal Government, and annuities due the hostile tribes were diverted for this purpose. Many men of these Indian tribes were enlisted in Confederate and Union military forces and participated in campaigns in the Indian Territory; these campaigns, along with guerilla activities, seriously ravaged the country. After the war punitive measures were imposed on the principal tribes of the Indian Territory--the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creeks, and Seminole--by treaties negotiated in 1866. The tribes were obliged to make cessions of land on which other tribes could be located, to declare void all treaties with the former Confederacy, to abolish slavery and allow their former slaves the same rights as Indians, to make available part of the proceeds from the sale of lands to reimburse loyal Indians for damages during the war, to grant rights of way for railroads, and to declare a general amnesty for all acts committed during the war. The Government aided the Indian refugees in Kansas to return to their homes in the Indian Territory, and also extended relief to the southern Cherokee. Indians in other areas of the West also took to the warpath. Some tribes were provoked to hostility by the encroachments of miners and the development of transportation lines; in Colorado the Arapahos and Cheyennes attacked mining camps and mail coaches. Raids by other tribes on emigrants along the Santa Fe trail and the Texas border made the Government increase its forces on the Arkansas and New Mexico frontiers. In 1863-64 a force under Col. Kit Carson campaigned against the Apaches and Navahos, who were finally obliged in 1865 to accept reservations. The outbreak of the Sioux in Minnesota in 1862 resulted in extensive loss of life and property damage. Successive Commissioners of Indian Affairs during the war: Alfred B. Greenwood, May 4, 1859. The Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is in the Report of the Secretary of the Inte rior, 1861-66, previously cited. See also Annie Heloise Abel, The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War (Cleveland, 1919), The Ameri- Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of Amer- Files and Records Division This Division had charge of the correspondence and other general records of the Office of Indian Affairs. It briefed, registered, and indexed incoming letters and indexed outgoing letters. Record Group 75. -- For the Civil War period most of the outgoing letters are recorded in letter books (vols. 65-78, Dec. 1860-Dec. 1865). Letters to superintendents and agents concern accounts, appointments of agents, agency employees, trade licenses, visits by delegations of Indians to Washington, Indian spoliations, bounty land claims of Indians, Indian lands, finances, erection of buildings for Indians, relief, and payments to Indians. Communications to the Secretary of the Interior contain recommendations and reports on various subjects. Appointment papers for special commissioners to appraise Indian lands and for special agents to purchase and distribute provisions to destitute Indians are also included. Communications to the Commissioner of Pensions concern bounty lands for Indians, letters to the Commissioner of the General Land Office concern the appraisal of Indian lands and their survey, and letters to Congressmen concern spoliation claims against Indians and claims for the allotment of lands. Correspondence regarding the delivery of guns and the purchase of Indian goods is addressed to business firms. Letters to individuals concern the purchase of land from Indians, payments for services, claims of Indians for damages, employment at agencies, and other matters. General circulars and orders are also in the letters sent books. Alphabetical indexes in the volumes facilitate finding letters sent to specific officials and individuals. For the letters sent there is also a series of useful abstracts, well arranged by superintendency and agency. (The letters sent by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-81, are available on microfilm as M 21.) Other outgoing letters are in two smaller series. In the "Report Books" (vols. 12-14) are recorded letters to Government officials, congressional committees, and the Secretary of the Interior (available on microfilm, 183881, as M 348). The letters to the Secretary relate to administrative matters, claims for services, claims of Indians, claims for depredations by Indians, estimates of expenditures, the establishment of reservations, charges against agents, funds due Indian tribes, changes in appropriation bills, Indian trust funds, the employment of clerks, military reservations, and annual reports on operations. These volumes are especially important for study of the formulation of Indian policy and the administration of Indian affairs. In some "Miscellaneous Records" (vols. 8-9) are mainly letters of appointment to Indian agents and commissions of agents and superintendents, with some certificates of the Commissioner relative to payment of debts of Indian tribes and statements of payments to be made to creditors of Indian tribes. A voluminous file of letters received during the war, comprising letters handled by all divisions of the Office, contains letters from superintendents and agents regarding accounts, annuities, buildings, claims, depredations, education, employees, health, Indian lands, progress in agriculture, subsistence, supplies, traders and licenses, treaty negotiations, and administrative matters. Included are instructions, decisions, authorizations, and other communications from the Secretary of the Interior; letters concerning accounts and other financial matters from the Second Auditor, the Second Comptroller, and other officials of the Treasury Department; letters from the General Land Office concerning Indian lands; and letters from the Secretary of War, Army officers, the President, Members of Congress, other officials, Indians, business firms, and private individuals. These letters are arranged by superintendency or agency and are therefore useful for research on particular areas of the country or on Indian tribes. Receipts for annuities are also to be found in the letters received file. Letters relating to Indian reserves sometimes follow the general file of letters received from agencies. Material on Indian schools and letters concerning miscellaneous subjects are also segregated. Registers of letters received serve as a useful index to the file. This file is of paramount importance for documenting wartime and postwar relations with the Indian tribes and is also important for the administration of the Indian service, for Territorial and local affairs, for land history, for military operations, and for the history and ethnology of the Indians. Records available on microfilm: letters received, 1824-81 (M 234), and registers of letters received, 1824-80 (M 18). Various matters arising out of the war--such as the payment of loyal Indians' claims and of back pay, bounties, and pensions and payment for damages done to missions--were in the course of settlement for some years after the war and are documented in both letters received and letters sent. A list of the subdivisions of the letters received file is in Van Tyne and Leland, Guide, p. 206-207. Further documentation regarding Indian affairs is in records of the Indian Division of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior (Record Group 48), records of the Office of the Secretary of War (Record Group 107), records of U. S. Army commands A series of special files contains correspondence, reports, accounts, lists, affidavits, and other records relating to claims and investigations. These files, numerically arranged, contain documents relating to the settlement of the claims of Seminole (file no. 87), claims of Choctaw and Chickasaw (no. 134), claims of Creeks for reimbursement of money paid to freedmen wrongfully enrolled as Creeks (no. 284), and claims of Delawares for depredations by whites (no. 106); also papers relating to the affairs of southern Indian refugees in Kansas (no. 201). In these files also are documents relating to investigations, chiefly concerning the conduct of employees. Documents relating to the claims of loyal Choctaw and Chickasaw are in special files nos. 134 and 142. No. 134 contains a statement of the examination of the claims reported by Commissioners E. W. Rice and A. H. |