return to American Indian Research in South Dakota

Digital and Non-South Dakota Resources

Updated 06/23/2020. If you have additions or corrections to this list, please send them to archref@state.sd.us.

Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
Dickinson College is digitizing records relating to the Carlisle Indian School and has made these records available online. Over 2,300 records are related specifically to one of the Sioux Nation tribes. Student records and cemetery information can be searched by student name. Student records, images, and publications can be browsed by tribal affiliation.

Digital Horizons
North Dakota-specific online repository with holdings on Standing Rock, other tribes, and state history. Material comes from contributors across the state, adding to the diversity of the collection.

Family Search
The Church of Latter Day Saints microfilmed numerous South Dakota Bureau of Indian Affairs records at the Federal Archives and Records Center at Kansas City. These microfilms may be borrowed through local LDS Family History Centers. The local centers can also provide an up-to-date listing of records available by microfilm. These may include census, births, deaths, marriages, court proceedings, tribal council records, grazing assignments, heirship records, probate records, school census records, annuity records, tribal adoptions, and allotment records. Call ahead to make sure of the hours, as many are located within an LDS church.

Local Family History Centers in South Dakota:
Aberdeen; Belle Fourche; Brookings; Eagle Butte; Gettysburg; Pierre; Rapid City; Rosebud; Sioux Falls; Vermillion; Yankton

Indiana University Bloomington
Mathers Museum of World Cultures
416 N. Indiana Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47408
(812) 855-6873
mathers@indiana.edu

Home to the Wanamaker Collection of American Indian Photographs.

Marquette University
Native America Collections
Raynor Memorial Libraries
135 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53233
(414) 288-7256

The Christianity and Native America collection includes records from Catholic missions, churches, and schools across the state. They have published guides organized by town and institution. Some records - including from the Holy Rosary Mission and Red Cloud Indian School, the Indian Sentinel newspaper, St. Francis Mission, and Bureau of Catholic Indian Mission - have been digitized, and their catalog can be searched here.

National Archives at Denver
17101 Huron St.
Broomfield, CO 80023
(303) 604-4740
denver.archives@nara.gov

Holdings include records of: Bureau of Land Management (Record Group 49, and specifically 49.9.25 for South Dakota); SD World War I Selective Service System Records (RG 163); US Attorneys and Marshals records of 1973 Wounded Knee Dismissals (RG 118.38).

National Archives at Kansas City
400 W. Pershing Rd.
Kansas City, MO 64108
(816) 268-8000
kansascity.archives@nara.gov

5,480 cubic feet of BIA material. Record Group 75 consists of the records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This includes agencies and schools within the state; for a full list, please click here and scroll down to Record Group 75. This link may be helpful in navigating the BIA records and other National Archive holdings. For full BIA holdings across all locations, visit this link; try doing a text search for “Sioux” or “Dakota.” Kansas City also houses the Records of U.S. District and other courts in South Dakota from 1861-1978 (RG 21.44), and Statistical Reports from Field Jurisdictions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1907-38 (microfilm).

National Museum of the American Indian
Cultural Resource Center and Archives
4220 Silver Hill Rd.
Suitland, MD
(202) 633-1000

The NMAI Archives contains several photograph collections that include historical images of Sioux tribes. Of interest are the James E. Curry papers concerning his time practicing law in Indian affairs from 1932-1958, the Anne Pearse-Hocker collection documenting the Wounded Knee Occupation of 1973, and the Helen L. Peterson papers. Some items can be viewed online.

The Newberry Library
60 West Walton St.
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 255-3512
email contact form

The Newberry has several photograph and manuscript collections related to Sioux tribes. Of particular interest are the Andrew Jackson Faulk and D.F. Barry photograph collections, and the A. McGaffey Beede collection of Sioux Indian drawings from Fort Yates, North Dakota.

North Dakota State Archives
612 East Boulevard Ave.
Bismarck, ND 58505
(701) 328-2091
archives@nd.gov

Manuscript and state records include Standing Rock Agency and Tribal Council, James McLaughlin, Northwest Indian Commission treaty negotiations, winter counts, oral histories, and photographs including the Frank B. Fiske photograph collection. Their digital collections can be found on Digital Horizons (see listing above).

Northwestern University
Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian
Northwestern University Digital Library Collections digitized the complete work of Edward S. Curtis, titled The North American Indian. Curtis spent 23 years capturing American Indian life in photography and narrative chronicles. It was published in 20 volumes; the Teton Sioux, Yankontai, and Assiniboin make up Vol. 3, which is indexed here.

Plains Indian Ledger Art
The Plains Indian Ledger Art Project (PILA) facilities the digitization of the unique genre of Plains drawing on paper created during the 1860-1900 period, in order to promote preservation, research, and public access.