South Dakota State Historical Society/State Archives
Indian Archives Project
The Indian Archives Project was established in 1996 to locate early primary source materials related to American Indians in South Dakota. The project was created to solve the dual problems of limited access to Bureau of Indian Affairs records held outside the state of South Dakota, and, preservation of those heavily used archival materials. Among the subjects covered by these records are annuities, census, education, land claims, and treaty rights.
Brennan, John R., Family Papers Two cubic feet (H72-2)
The bulk of this collection dates from the period 1900-1917 when Major Brennan was Superintendent of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Folder two contains a list of Indian women married to white men, the names of Indians who signed petitions for allotment, and a list of returned pupils who married and their spouses. Folder 24 contains the minutes of a council meeting held April 23, 1908 which debates the rights of white men married to Indian women. This document provides an excellent view of perceptions of Indian womens status as land owners and moral issues regarding the treatment of women by men. A letter from A.C. Tonner dated August 8, 1904 also discusses Indian women's property rights. Also in that folder is a letter from Chas. L. Davis, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, written July 31, 1909 which discusses how minimal salaries for Field Service workers results in a decrease in qualified male workers and an increase in unqualified female workers. Folder 25 contains materials related to identification of Zitka Lununi, or Lost Bird, the Lakota child who survived the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre and was later adopted by General L. W. Colby and his wife Clara. Many family photographs also illustrate the activities of Brennan family women.
Collins, Mary Clementine, Papers Four cubic feet (H80-14, H94-14)
Collins was a prominent female Congregational missionary to the Lakota between 1875 and 1910. The personal papers contain genealogical material, Collins autobiography in her own hand, ordination papers, her will, and a certificate appointing her postmaster. The correspondence is most extensive for the 1880s and 1900s. Most of it is family and mission-related. Prominent correspondents are the American Missionary Association, the Department of the Interior (Indian Service), and the Indian Rights Association. Voluminous writings by Collins, in both English and Dakota, can be found under the collection series titled Mission Work and Indians. Many photographs and pictographic drawings are also part of this collection. The material on Elias and Ethel Jacobsen consists of Ethel's correspondence with her family, 1887-1898, 1933, 1937, some writings, and a sporadic diary; and Elias's diaries for 1875-1885. Ethel Collins Jacobsen was a niece of Mary Collins. Also includes an account book for the Elk Butte Women's Society, pamphlets, photographs, an American Missionary Association Indian Missions record book and a list of Indian names with their English translations.
Gage, Matilda Electa Joslyn, Papers One reel of microfilm (MF 46)
This collection (1870-1970), belonging to woman suffrage activist Matilda Gage, contains correspondence, woman suffrage materials, information on Susan B. Anthony, newspaper clippings, and a biography of Mrs. Gage. The papers were microfilmed by the South Dakota Commission on the Status of Women prior to their donation to the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College.
Hanson, Joseph Mills, Family Papers 15 cubic feet (H74-17)
This unprocessed collection contains family correspondence, more than half of which was written to or by Anna Maria Gertrude Mills Hanson, mother of prominent civil war historian, Joseph Mills Hanson. A majority of the letters, detailing day-to-day family activities, are between Anna and Joseph. Letters written during the 1800s are mainly between Anna, her mother in New York, and Anna's brothers Stephen in Omaha, Nebraska, and Abe in Washington, DC. Major Joseph Randall Hanson and his wife Anna, were early settlers in Yankton. The Major was a territorial legislator and was appointed Indian Agent for the Upper Missouri region by President Lincoln in 1865.
Pickler Family Papers 65 cubic feet (H91-74)
This collection consists of correspondence, subject files, financial records, journals, business records, photographs, scrapbooks, and speeches, 1865-1976. Major John Alfred Pickler and his wife, Alice Mary Alt Pickler, were prominent Faulk County pioneers. This collection contains documentation of the temperance and suffrage movements in South Dakota, in which both John and Alice Pickler were active. Alice's correspondents included persons of national prominence in these crusades including Annie Wittenmeyer, Carrie Chapman Catt, Susan B. Anthony, and Henry Blackwell. The collection includes an extensive body of correspondence between state and national Equal Suffrage Association headquarters and field workers and local societies. Portions of the collection dating later than 1910 concern the household, school and business activities of by then widowed Alice Pickler, her children, and grandchildren. See article by Linda M. Sommer Dakota Resources: The Pickler Family Papers and the Humphrey Family Papers at the South Dakota State Historical Society, in South Dakota History, Vol. 24 (Summer 1994): 115-134.
Riggs Family Papers Eight cubic feet (H74-18)
Thomas L. Riggs, a Congregational minister who entered the missionary field in 1872, operated Oahe Mission and Industrial School north of Pierre, ministering to the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Reservation Lakota. Included in this collection are listings of native helpers, church records noting marriages and baptisms, records of church members and ministers, and copies of articles written by Margaret L. Riggs relating to women's missionary work among the Sioux.
Robinson, Doane, Papers Three items (H74-9)
Within the files of early State Historian Doane Robinson are the following manuscripts related to women. Folder 240 contains a two page manuscript, The Woman Power of South Dakota through Registration, dated December 29, 1917. Folder 54 contains a letter to L. N. Crill, February 4, 1922, giving a brief sketch of the women's suffrage movement in South Dakota from 1872 to 1898. Folder 52 contains correspondence with several state Woman's Christian Temperance Union officials concerning funding of the memorial statue to Mother Sherrard in the South Dakota State Capitol (1908-1915).
Young, Eugene Miner, Papers Approximately ten cubic feet (H90-114, H94-65, H96-44)
This collection contains letters and photographs (1880s-1980s) of a family who farmed near McLaughlin (1917) on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and later in Sully County. While the bulk of this collection relates to farming and other business ventures, there are a significant amount of letters documenting the family's difficult relationship with Young's stepmother Carrie.
Indian Archives Project
The Indian Archives Project was established in 1996 to locate early primary source materials related to American Indians in South Dakota. The project was created to solve the dual problems of limited access to Bureau of Indian Affairs records held outside the state of South Dakota, and, preservation of those heavily used archival materials. Among the subjects covered by these records are annuities, census, education, land claims, and treaty rights.
Brennan, John R., Family Papers Two cubic feet (H72-2)
The bulk of this collection dates from the period 1900-1917 when Major Brennan was Superintendent of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Folder two contains a list of Indian women married to white men, the names of Indians who signed petitions for allotment, and a list of returned pupils who married and their spouses. Folder 24 contains the minutes of a council meeting held April 23, 1908 which debates the rights of white men married to Indian women. This document provides an excellent view of perceptions of Indian womens status as land owners and moral issues regarding the treatment of women by men. A letter from A.C. Tonner dated August 8, 1904 also discusses Indian women's property rights. Also in that folder is a letter from Chas. L. Davis, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, written July 31, 1909 which discusses how minimal salaries for Field Service workers results in a decrease in qualified male workers and an increase in unqualified female workers. Folder 25 contains materials related to identification of Zitka Lununi, or Lost Bird, the Lakota child who survived the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre and was later adopted by General L. W. Colby and his wife Clara. Many family photographs also illustrate the activities of Brennan family women.
Collins, Mary Clementine, Papers Four cubic feet (H80-14, H94-14)
Collins was a prominent female Congregational missionary to the Lakota between 1875 and 1910. The personal papers contain genealogical material, Collins autobiography in her own hand, ordination papers, her will, and a certificate appointing her postmaster. The correspondence is most extensive for the 1880s and 1900s. Most of it is family and mission-related. Prominent correspondents are the American Missionary Association, the Department of the Interior (Indian Service), and the Indian Rights Association. Voluminous writings by Collins, in both English and Dakota, can be found under the collection series titled Mission Work and Indians. Many photographs and pictographic drawings are also part of this collection. The material on Elias and Ethel Jacobsen consists of Ethel's correspondence with her family, 1887-1898, 1933, 1937, some writings, and a sporadic diary; and Elias's diaries for 1875-1885. Ethel Collins Jacobsen was a niece of Mary Collins. Also includes an account book for the Elk Butte Women's Society, pamphlets, photographs, an American Missionary Association Indian Missions record book and a list of Indian names with their English translations.
Gage, Matilda Electa Joslyn, Papers One reel of microfilm (MF 46)
This collection (1870-1970), belonging to woman suffrage activist Matilda Gage, contains correspondence, woman suffrage materials, information on Susan B. Anthony, newspaper clippings, and a biography of Mrs. Gage. The papers were microfilmed by the South Dakota Commission on the Status of Women prior to their donation to the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College.
Hanson, Joseph Mills, Family Papers 15 cubic feet (H74-17)
This unprocessed collection contains family correspondence, more than half of which was written to or by Anna Maria Gertrude Mills Hanson, mother of prominent civil war historian, Joseph Mills Hanson. A majority of the letters, detailing day-to-day family activities, are between Anna and Joseph. Letters written during the 1800s are mainly between Anna, her mother in New York, and Anna's brothers Stephen in Omaha, Nebraska, and Abe in Washington, DC. Major Joseph Randall Hanson and his wife Anna, were early settlers in Yankton. The Major was a territorial legislator and was appointed Indian Agent for the Upper Missouri region by President Lincoln in 1865.
Pickler Family Papers 65 cubic feet (H91-74)
This collection consists of correspondence, subject files, financial records, journals, business records, photographs, scrapbooks, and speeches, 1865-1976. Major John Alfred Pickler and his wife, Alice Mary Alt Pickler, were prominent Faulk County pioneers. This collection contains documentation of the temperance and suffrage movements in South Dakota, in which both John and Alice Pickler were active. Alice's correspondents included persons of national prominence in these crusades including Annie Wittenmeyer, Carrie Chapman Catt, Susan B. Anthony, and Henry Blackwell. The collection includes an extensive body of correspondence between state and national Equal Suffrage Association headquarters and field workers and local societies. Portions of the collection dating later than 1910 concern the household, school and business activities of by then widowed Alice Pickler, her children, and grandchildren. See article by Linda M. Sommer Dakota Resources: The Pickler Family Papers and the Humphrey Family Papers at the South Dakota State Historical Society, in South Dakota History, Vol. 24 (Summer 1994): 115-134.
Riggs Family Papers Eight cubic feet (H74-18)
Thomas L. Riggs, a Congregational minister who entered the missionary field in 1872, operated Oahe Mission and Industrial School north of Pierre, ministering to the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Reservation Lakota. Included in this collection are listings of native helpers, church records noting marriages and baptisms, records of church members and ministers, and copies of articles written by Margaret L. Riggs relating to women's missionary work among the Sioux.
Robinson, Doane, Papers Three items (H74-9)
Within the files of early State Historian Doane Robinson are the following manuscripts related to women. Folder 240 contains a two page manuscript, The Woman Power of South Dakota through Registration, dated December 29, 1917. Folder 54 contains a letter to L. N. Crill, February 4, 1922, giving a brief sketch of the women's suffrage movement in South Dakota from 1872 to 1898. Folder 52 contains correspondence with several state Woman's Christian Temperance Union officials concerning funding of the memorial statue to Mother Sherrard in the South Dakota State Capitol (1908-1915).
Young, Eugene Miner, Papers Approximately ten cubic feet (H90-114, H94-65, H96-44)
This collection contains letters and photographs (1880s-1980s) of a family who farmed near McLaughlin (1917) on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and later in Sully County. While the bulk of this collection relates to farming and other business ventures, there are a significant amount of letters documenting the family's difficult relationship with Young's stepmother Carrie.