RG75 M2, M234
Yes these are historian-archival resources that many of us in the research business know as the source for much of the information about Indian Affairs in the 19th century. If you don’t know what I am talking about, I envy your ignorance, as there must be a lot less stress, strain, and anguish in your life. These are microfilm series that contain correspondence from Indian Agents and others about the administration of tribes and reservations in the United States. There are two different series related to Oregon for RG (Record Group) 75:
NARA Series M234- Letters received, 1824-1881; registers of letters received, 1824-1880:Oregon Superintendency, 1842-1880 Oregon Superintendency 1842-1852
The Finding aid.
and
NARA Series M2- Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1848-1873
and index is here: Index to M2
Thus far we have always had to access these microfilm series in libraries. Many large university libraries have the series. The process of looking through the microfilm has been labor intensive, only in the past 8 years or so have digital readers and digital printouts become readily available to the public. This has made saving and printing from the films of letters and reports very easy and helpful. A process that at one time took hundreds of hours to now tens of hours.
But I recently discovered that the M234 films for the Oregon Superintendency are now online at the Montana Memory project. Yes they have all of the Oregon and Washington rolls completely digitized. I don’t know the full extent of the project, but I’ll bet its of a broad spectrum of the west.
We are still searching for access to the M2 series, perhaps they are digitizing the series now?
I also found the records for the Washington Superintendency:
So research away!
Cool! I’ve been loving having Harrington’s notes online. This is GREAT!