Indian Allotment Schedule Books: Preserving Tribal History

Cyndi Eide, Realty Specialist; and Seth Jackson, Realty Specialist; Montana/Dakotas State Office

The BLM Montana/Dakotas State Office maintains one of two copies of a unique collection of Indian Allotment Schedule (IAS) books. The Bureau of Indian Affairs holds the second.

Following the passing of the General Allotment Act of 1887 (Dawes Act),  the Department of the Interior sent special allotting agents to Indian reservations throughout the United States to identify tracts of land (or allotments) to convey to each tribal member.  The allotting agents created IAS books to keep track of which allotments were assigned to each tribal member.  The information typically included both the Indian and English names, gender, ages, and their kinship relation to other allottees, making the surviving records an invaluable resource for tribal members.  Once completed, each IAS was reviewed and signed by the local superintendent of the Office of Indian Affairs, followed by the Commissioners of both the Office of Indian Affairs and the General Land Office (GLO), and finally by the Secretary of the Interior.  The Secretary then directed the GLO to issue trust patents for each allotment, with notations to the IAS.

The BLM still maintains the IAS as active records.  Over the years, and at the request of the BIA, additional patents have been issued for many allotments, usually for small undivided interests. Prior to 1967, patents were issued only in the Washington Office, but signature authority was then delegated down to the respective State Office.  The Montana/Dakotas State Office received 57 IAS books for the 18 allotted reservations within the three-state area.

Requests for patents are checked for accuracy against the IAS information and the hand-written notations detailing each issued patent made in the books.  In 2013 alone, the BLM Montana/Dakotas Branch of Realty, Lands and Renewable Energy issued more than 600 patents.

At that time, it was determined that due to the age of th

e books, hand-written notations were contributing to the deterioration of the very fragile and brittle pages, risking the loss of important, original historical information.  New procedures were set for making patent notations to prevent further degradation of the collection.  In addition, the BLM initiated a scanning project with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), whose mission is to preserve our nation’s valuable records.  The entire IAS collection was scanned by NARA in 2018.

What is the future of the BLM Montana/Dakotas’ IAS? 

The completed scans are now being reviewed to ensure quality.  We are also exploring options to make the scanned records available on General Land Office (GLO) Records where anyone can access them.  The books themselves will be stored in a climate controlled vault.  This IAS book project is invaluable for Indian people who want to trace their genealogy, but even more importantly, they represent an era in the history of the Tribal and U.S. Government relationship.  The collection is a piece of our nation’s historic tapestry.