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John Young papers COLLECTION CLOSED (Ms.2007.030)

Brown University Library

Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2146
email: hay@brown.edu

Inventory

COLLECTION CLOSEDThis collection is unavailable for viewing, research, display, imaging, teaching and circulation. It is pending review by the appropriate Indigenous community or communities to determine if it contains culturally sensitive information. For additional information please contact hay@brown.edu.

Series 1. Personal correspondence, 1859-1884
Box 1
This series contains letters primarily from John Young and his daughters Annie and Harriet Young and Lucie Ford to John's wife Susan in Brooklyn and to his daughter Martha. These letters cover a wide range of topics, including daily life at the Agency, the difficulty of finding and keeping competent staff, the problems involved in getting supplies delivered and distributed, the culture of the tribes living on the reservation and their relations with the Army, the school at the Agency, relations with the local Catholic missionaries, and the growing food shortages due to the destruction of the buffalo herds and budget cuts in Wahington, D.C. There is no correspondence for September 1881.

Container Description Date
Box 1, Folder 1 Personal correspondence
Contents Note: This folder contains one letter to John Young concerning a business matter.
 1859
Box 1, Folder 2 Personal correspondence
Contents Note: This folder contains one letter to John Young from a law firm in New York City.
 1873 Oct 25
Box 1, Folder 3 Personal correspondence
Contents Note: This folder includes a letter to John Young regarding a business matter; the rest of the correspondence concerns his journey to Montana Territory.
 1876 Aug-Dec
Box 1, Folders 4-9 Personal correspondence
 1877
Box 1, Folders 10-15 Personal correspondence
 1878
Box 1, Folders 16-21 Personal correspondence
 1879
Box 1, Folders 22-27 Personal correspondence
Contents Note: Includes John's letter of Jun 22, 1880 to his wife Susan, describing the similarity between the Piegans and the Irish in appearance as well as their common custom of "keening" to express grief.
 1880
Box 1, Folders 28-32 Personal correspondence
Contents Note: Includes John's letter of Aug 28, 1881 to Martha, in which he described the Indians' panic after seeing soldiers arrive at their school picnic campsite and his belief that it would take more than one generation for them to establish trust of the white man.
 1881
Box 1, Folders 33-36 Personal correspondence
Contents Note: Includes John's letter of Sep 9, 1882 to Susan, in which he expressed his desire not to remain at the Agency another winter, but would rather remain than be seen to be deserting his post when difficulty arose. Also includes John's letter of Oct 17, 1882 to Susan, in which he described the Agency's bumper crop of potatoes which would provide food for the Indians if he ran short of flour.
 1882
Box 1, Folders 37-40 Personal correspondence
Contents Note: Includes John's letter of Sep 24, 1883 to Martha, explaining his reasons for resigning as agent. Also includes John's letter of Dec 18, 1883 to Susan, in which he described his plan to take the Piegans to Fort Shaw to be fed as prisoners of war rather than keep them on the reservation to perish from hunger.
 1883
Box 1, Folder 41 Personal correspondence
Contents Note: This folder includes John's letter of Feb 13 to Susan, describing the critical shortage of food and his determination to give out all the subsistence he has to prevent the Indians from starving.
 1884 Jan-Apr

Series 2. Business Papers, 1873-1890
Box 1, 2XX
This series contains correspondence and papers related to John Young's tenure at the Blackfeet Agency. It primarily concerns two accounting disputes with the Office of Indian Affairs. The first dispute concerned whether $866.09 had been expended in the correct fiscal year. The second concerned the inventory of property turned over to the new agent when Young left the Agency and is referred to as the post-service accounting dispute. Some of the correspondence in this series is from Martha Young to various government officials on her father's behalf. Two letters are to John Young from R.H. Pratt, who was the superintendent of the U.S Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Penn. Some of the letters appear to be either drafts or copies of letters sent. A second copy of the proposal for the reservation may be found in Series 4. Maps and drawings.

Container Description Date
Box 1, Folder 42 Proposed Reservation for Gros Ventre, Piegan, Blood, Blackfeet, River Crow and other Indians, with accompanying map (copy 1)
Contents Note: Copy 2 of this proposal is in the Map Series (Box 1, Folder 62).
 1873 Jul 2
Box 1, Folder 43 Correspondence regarding John Young's appointment as agent
 1876 Oct-Nov
Box 1, Folder 44 Correspondence regarding accounting dispute over $866.09
Contents Note: Included in this correspondence are two letters to Martha Young from Elihu Root, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
 1883 Jan-May
Box 1, Folder 45 Correspondence regarding post-service accounting dispute
Contents Note: This correspondence concerns property, chiefly supplies valued at $1486.10, that the Office of Indian Affairs claimed was missing or not properly accounted for when John Young left the Agency.
 1884
Box 1, Folder 46 Correspondence regarding post-service accounting dispute
 1885
Box 1, Folder 47 Correspondence regarding post-service accounting dispute
Contents Note: This folder includes two letters to John Young from R.H. Pratt regarding Pratt's planned visit to Young in New York.
 1886
Box 1, Folder 48 Correspondence regarding post-service accounting dispute
 1887
Box 1, Folder 49 Correspondence regarding post-service accounting dispute
 1888
Box 1, Folder 50 Correspondence regarding post-service accounting dispute
Contents Note: This folder includes Young's letter of March 12 in which he stated that he did not owe the Department one dime and that any compromise on the government's claim would be dishonorable.
 1889
Box 1, Folder 51 Correspondence regarding post-service accounting dispute
 1890
Box 1, Folder 52 Vouchers
Contents Note: This folder contains three vouchers. The first is for the open market purchase of flour, the second is for sales to employees and the third is from the United States to Agent Young for salary and transportation expenses.
 1884 Mar
Box 1, Folder 53 Statement of disbursing account from the Montana National Bank in Helena, M.T.
 1884 Apr 30
Box 1, Folder 54 Summonses from the U.S. Circuit Court for the Eastern District of New York
Contents Note: This folder contains three summonses, one each for John Young and the two friends who put up his bond when he was hired as Agent.
 1886 Jan 9
Box 1, Folder 55 Circular regarding reimbursement for travel expenses, Pacific Railroad
Contents Note: This circular is from the Department of the Interior regarding when its employees could be reimbursed for travel expenses on various lines of the Pacific Railroad.
 n.d.
Box 1, Folder 56 Notice signed "U.S. Indian Agent" regarding trespassing on the reservation
Contents Note: This is a handwritten notice warning non-residents against trespassing on the reservation.
 n.d.
Box 2XX, Folder 1 Certificates of Appointment
Contents Note: Two of these three certificates are signed by President Grant and appoint John Young agent at the Blackfeet reservation until Feb 13, 1881. The third is signed by President Hayes and appoints Young for a four year term ending Feb 13, 1885.
 1876-1881

Series 3. Writings, 1885-1903
Box 1
This series contains writings by John Young and his daughter Harriet Young regarding their experience on the Blackfeet reservation. In his accounts of the Baker Massacre in these writings, Young identifies the Piegan band who were attacked as Cut Hand's band instead of Heavy Runner's band. In Harriet's "Essay on the Indian Character", she says that six hundred Indians on the reservation starved during the winter of 1884-85, not 1883-84.

Container Description Date
Box 1, Folder 57 Narrative of the principal facts relating to the insufficient food sent to the Piegan Indians from 1881 to 1884
Contents Note: This five page handwritten essay, while unsigned, is by John Young. It appears to be his response to a newspaper clipping included in the folder from the California Christian Advocate, July 9, 1884, which blames "Ex-Agent John Young" for "the wretchedness and starvation" on the reservation. It was written in 1885.
 1885
Box 1, Folder 58 Essay on the origin, superstitions, government and domestic life of Indian tribes
Contents Note: This ten page handwritten essay appears to be an address or letter to an association concerned with Indian affairs. It was written by John Young but is unsigned. The title is taken from the first paragraph. The essay includes a brief history of the conflict between white settlers and the Blackfeet and an account of the Baker Massacre. Young also gives his opinion on several issues facing the Indians at that time, including the usefulness to them of schools such as the one in Carlisle, Penn.
 1891 Jun 4
Box 1, Folder 59 Eight Years with the Blackfeet by an Ex-Indian Agent
Contents Note: This thirty-eight page handwritten manuscript, written by John Young, contains a detailed account of his decision to become an agent at the Blackfeet Agency, his journey to Montana Territory, descriptions of the culture of the Piegans and the laws governing the tribe, and a retelling of firsthand accounts of the aftermath of the Baker Massacre. It ends abruptly on page 38 and does not include the entire eight years Young was at the Blackfeet Agency.
 1894
Box 1, Folder 60 Death of White Calf
Contents Note: This folder contains both a handwritten and a typed copy of an essay on White Calf's life. It is unsigned and probably not by John Young.
 1903
Box 1, Folder 61 Essay on the Indian Character
Contents Note: This essay is signed "H" and was written by Harriet Young during or after 1885. In it she describes some aspects of Indian culture, education on the reservation and the consequences to the Indians of the loss of their traditional way of life. She mentions the efforts of the Brooklyn Woman's Indian Association to send a Methodist missionary to the Blackfeet Agency.
 circa 1885

Series 4. Maps and Drawings
Box 1, 2XX
This series contains maps of the reservation as well as of the western United States. The drawings are of the reservation compound and of the land surrounding it. Another copy of the "Proposed Reservation..." is in Series 2. Business papers.

Container Description Date
Box 1, Folder 62 Proposed Reservation for Gros Ventre, Piegan, Blood, Blackfeet, River Crow and other Indians with accompanying map (copy 2)
Contents Note: Copy 1 of this proposal is in the Business papers series (Box 1, Folder 42).
 1873 Jul 2
Box 1, Folder 63 Map on vellum
Contents Note: This map shows the reservation boundaries and the surrounding area, between 47 and 49 degrees N. Latitude and 109 and 114 degrees W. Longitude. The location of the original Agency on the Teton River is marked in red, as well as its first location on Badger Creek. The new reservation boundaries created in June 1875 are outlined in red and part of the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition is marked.
Box 1, Folder 64 Scale drawings of the Agency and surrounding area
Contents Note: This folder contains two items: "No. 1" is a diagram of the land around the Agency showing where buildings and Indian homes are located and where and how much land is being farmed. It is of the second Agency location on Badger Creek, constructed during John Young's tenure as agent. "No. 2" is entitled "Ground Plan and Elevation of Buildings of Blackfeet Agency in Badger Creek, Montana Ter"
Box 2XX, Folder 2 Maps of the western United States and the Blackfeet Reservation
Contents Note: This folder contains four items: 1. "National Map of the United States from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean", dated 1868. It is stamped "received at agency June 14, 1879". It is folded and in fragile condition. 2. "Gros Ventre, Piegan, Blood, Blackfoot and River Crow Indian Reservation Montana 1880" 3. Two copies of maps showing the western United States from Wisconsin south to Mississippi and west to the Pacific Ocean. The maps are on attached pages which appear to have been removed from a book.
 1868-1880
Box 2XX, Folder 3 Scale drawing of Agency buildings
Contents Note: This drawing is of the new Agency compound constructed from 1879 to 1880 on Badger Creek. It is in fragile condition.

Series 5. Microfilm
Box 3
Four reels of master negative 35mm microfilm of the John Young papers.