This series consists of administrative subject files. The records provide information on all aspects of the administration and operation of the Minneapolis Area Office (MAO) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agencies under its oversight. The records include letters received and copies of letters sent; memorandums; telegrams; circulars; reports; clippings; and photographs. The files include forms; lists; vouchers; legal briefs and court records; brochures; Congressional reports; instructions; speeches; regulations; statements; manuals; schedules; authorizations; employee case files; and minutes.
The correspondents include local, area, and headquarters BIA officials, including the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; the director of the BIA Division of Extension and Industry; the MAO area, forestry, and extension directors; BIA land field agents; superintendents at local BIA agencies; and MAO employees. Additional correspondents, publishers, and originators include Federal officials from the Resettlement Administration, the National Resources Committee, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Agriculture Consumers' Counsel Division, the National Youth Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and other Federal agencies; state government officials; and other individuals and vendors having business with MAO or the BIA agencies under its oversight.
The records provide information on employees and personnel management, including travel, and management improvement programs; extension and credit programs; administration of contracts; property, including vehicles and buildings; finance; government policy; state and Federal legislation pertaining to Indians; complaints; Indian land and submarginal land projects; and road construction. The files include warnings and plans related to Japanese incendiary war balloons during World War II. Minutes of conferences and meetings include those of regional conferences of BIA superintendents, and the National Emergency Council.
Records related to specific tribes, reservations, and agencies under MAO oversight include annual reports, with narrative histories and statistics; ten year plans for reservation programs; reports on revolving cattle pools; appraisals; and correspondence. The records, submitted by the superintendents and other agency officials, provide information on the administration and operation of the Consolidated Chippewa Agency, the Great Lakes Consolidated Agency, the Lac du Flambeau Agency, the Menominee Agency, the Minnesota Agency, Pipestone Indian School, the Red Lake Agency, and Tomah Indian School and Agency. The files provide information on tribal enterprises, including wild rice, Indian arts, forest products, and beaver projects; fisheries; rehabilitation programs; claims; ordinances, including liquor laws; and case 44304 in the U.S. Court of Claims, Menominee Tribe of Indians vs. U.S. The files contain copies of the “Minnesota Chippewa Bulletin” for 1938-1942; maps, architectural drawings, building plans, and clippings related to the renovation of the Grand Portage Stockade; blueprints of subsistence gardens at the Lac du Flambeau Reservation; and census records for the Upper and Lower Sioux Reservation for 1961.
Questionnaires, reports, and related correspondence regarding tribal organizations submitted to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs provide information on the Bad River Band of Chippewa Indians, Bay Mills Indian Community, Forest County Potawatomi Community, Hannahville Indian Community, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Sokaogon Chippewa Community, St. Croix Reservation, and Stockbridge and Munsee Tribe of Indians, as well as Indians living on Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, Lac du Flambeau Reservation, Menominee Indian Reservation, Sac and Fox Indian Reservation, and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Reservation.
