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Stanley D. Lyman papers, 1923-1979

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Lyman, Stanley David, 1913-1979
Title
Stanley D. Lyman papers
Dates
1923-1979 (inclusive)
Quantity
15 Linear Feet
Collection Number
MS 0181
Summary
The Stanley D. Lyman papers (1923-1979) contain the records of Lyman's assignments with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, including his superintendency at Pine Ridge Indian Agency. Materials resulting from June Lyman's work with American Indians is also present, as are some personal materials.
Repository
University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT
84112-0860

Telephone: 8015818863
special@library.utah.edu
Access Restrictions

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

Born of Quaker stock October 7, 1913, in Helena, Montana, Stanley David Lyman was raised on his parents' farm along the Belle Fourche River in South Dakota. After graduating from Vale High School in 1932, he enrolled in Yankton College, a private Congregational institution. In 1936 with his newly earned bachelor's degree in English, Lyman tackled the tight job market of the Great Depression. His efforts were rewarded with a job as a seventh- and eighth-grade home teacher, earning an annual salary of 630 dollars. He taught junior and senior high school in Sturgis, South Dakota, from 1937 until 1941.

The first of Lyman's three assignments at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, was with the Farm Security Administration of the United States Department of Agriculture in 1941. As assistant rehabilitation supervisor, he worked with non-Indian farmers to make their few acres economically feasible ventures. It was during this time that he met June Kremer, who was employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as girls adviser at the Oglala Community High School. The two were married August 25, 1942.

A member of the National Guard, Lyman was activated for service during World War II but failed to pass his physical examination. During the war years he continued to work with the Department of Agriculture, first as farm labor assistant, responsible for locating migrant Mexican nationals and moving them to rural labor markets in the United States. He had learned Spanish in school and applied it throughout his career. Later he was appointed project supervisor for the Belle Fourche Irrigation Project, spending his summers studying at Colorado State University, where he completed his master's degree in English in 1944.

Following World War II, Lyman returned with his wife to Vale, South Dakota, where they managed a 360-acre irrigated ranch owned by the Lyman family. For three years they raised sheep, sugar beets, and hay. Lyman was involved in Western South Dakota Farm Labor Associations, served as president of the Vale Community Club, and was a member of the South Dakota Wool Growers Association, the Black Hills Beet Growers Association, and the Butte County Extention Service Board. In 1950 the Lymans moved to Plankinton where they worked at the South Dakota State Training School, Stanley as a teacher and June as a counselor.

Through his efforts to begin working for the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, Lyman was hired in 1952 as an agency relocation officer, his second assignment at Pine Ridge. His experience with migrant workers during the war helped him advance quickly in the new relocation program. In 1953 he became the assistant area placement officer in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and the following year was assigned to Denver, Colorado, as a field relocation officer. Four years later he was transferred to Chicago, Illinois, to supervise the relocation office there.

Lyman spent the next ten years with the bureau as a reservation superintendent. His first assignment was at Fort Peck Agency in Poplar, Montana, where he became closely involved with the local Indian residents, supervised completion of an irrigation system, and oversaw the leasing of oil acreage and agricultural land.

Transferred to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in 1967, Lyman helped the Ute tribe make some notable achievements, including the reduction of the welfare case load, introduction of successful business enterprises such as Bottle Hollow Resort, and reorganization of tribal finances to better profit tribe members. With the assistance of Floyd A. O'Neil and the staff at the University of Utah American West Center, June Lyman played an instrumental role in introducing a Ute history program into Utah public schools.

Lyman's third appointment at Pine Ridge, as reservation superintendent from October 1971 to November 1973, was undoubtedly his most challenging. The early years of the 1970s saw growing militancy within the Indian tribes as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. In February 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied the village of Wounded Knee, forcing Lyman to act as intermediary between Oglala Sioux tribal leaders and United States federal officials. In most matters of controversy he tried to support the tribal government and the idea of Indian self-determination.

Following the Wounded Knee crisis, Lyman made arrangements to be transferred to the Phoenix, Arizona, area office as head of the new Trust Protection Unit. But when asked by the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council to remain at Pine Ridge, he delayed his move several months until November 1973. As trust protection officer, Lyman was involved in water, land, and resources rights cases in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California.

Following his retirement in 1976, Lyman continued to work with the Trust Protection Unit as a consultant on water rights until his health began to fail in late 1977. During his years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he involved himself in a number of supervisory and administrative training programs. The bureau recognized his contributions in 1978 with a Citation for Meritorious Service.

Stanley D. Lyman died January 21, 1979.

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Content Description

The Stanley D. Lyman papers (1923-1979) contain the records of Lyman's assignments with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, including his superintendency at Pine Ridge Indian Agency. Many of the materials are also the result of June Lyman's work with American Indians.

The first section of the collection, contained in the first two boxes, is comprised of handwritten notes and rough drafts of tape recording transcripts made by the Lymans while working at Pine Ridge Agency. These notes were later typed and included in the chronological notebooks in the following section.

Section II consists of materials from Stanley Lyman's assignments with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, his 1941 position with the Department of Agriculture's Farm Security Administration, and his 1943 position with the United States Government Production and Marketing Division. These papers are arranged by office location and date, and bound into notebooks. All of the Pine Ridge Agency notebooks (1923-1978) are filed together at the beginning of the section, followed in order by documents from Lyman's other Bureau of Indian Affairs assignments: Denver, Colorado (1954-1958); Chicago, Illinois (1958-1962); Fort Peck Agency, Montana (1962-1967); Uintah and Ouray Agency, Utah (1967-1976); and Phoenix, Arizona (1973-1977).

Because section II is arranged chronologically, it contains various types of documents, including official and personal correspondence. Memorandums and minutes of meetings help give a clearer picture of agency office procedure and how daily business was handled. There are also reports and background information about various reservations and programs, most notably, the 1970 history project on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.

Narratives refer to small essays or written impressions of daily events, people, places, or specific incidents. These not only highlight official information, but also shed some light on the character and feelings of Stanley and June Lyman.

The chronological notebooks, especially those from Pine Ridge, also contain news clippings and magazine articles from all over the country, which clarify daily events related by the Lymans. The articles discuss crisis situations and rights issues, as well as cultural events and human interest aspects of native American society.

Tape transcripts appear mainly in the Pine Ridge Agency materials dated 1971 to 1973, although there are a few from Stanley Lyman's assignments in Utah and Arizona. These transcripts contain some of the most interesting information in the collection. Lyman made most of the recordings during the Wounded Knee crisis, and included remarks about daily events or notable incidents and descriptions of people and places. Some are in the form of interviews or recordings of meetings or news reports. June Lyman often added her impressions of events during the 1973 occupation. Most of these transcripts are in rough draft form with additions and corrections written in by hand.

Office notes were kept by Stanley Lyman during his work at Pine Ridge Agency and the Phoenix Area Trust Protection Unit. The notes include records of phone calls and visits, as well as remarks concerning problems related to his work as superintendent. In some instances the office notes include meeting minutes. During the crisis at Wounded Knee the office note taking became much more extensive and complete. Daily notes kept during the Pine Ridge years list only a date, location, and brief mention of activities.

Section III is comprised of news releases, entire newspapers, and news clippings not included in the chronological notebooks. They have been arranged alphabetically by title, subject, or tribe.

Publications by, for, and about Indians, reservations, and resource rights are located in the fourth section. They have been organized alphabetically by title and subject.

The fifth section contains published, in-depth magazine articles and "United States Indian Service, 1878-1906," a binder holding photocopies of early holographic letters about activities at Fort Peck Agency, Montana.

Section VI holds most of the few personal items included in the collection. June Lyman was involved in initiating a Ute history program in Utah public schools near the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. Course materials, textbooks, and information about the program are located in the first box of this section, as is Ute People: An Historical Study, a book written by June Lyman and Norma Denver. (Other information about the program is located in the chronological notebooks from the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in 1970.)

Eleven scrapbooks of certificates and tributes to Stanley D. Lyman, correspondence to and from family and friends, and some news clippings about the Lyman family are also located in section VI.

The addendum, the seventh and last section of the collection, contains miscellaneous material that June Lyman added to the collection in 1986. Included are notecards from "Stanley D. Lyman's Book of the Dead," a proposed study of the causes and related incidents surrounding the violent deaths on Pine Ridge Reservation, and two large scrapbooks of news clippings, brochures, and photographs.

The last box contains the original register to the Stanley D. Lyman Collection, as written by Marijane Lambert and Marlene Lewis in 1979. A decade later, the register was simplified, condensed, and revised. Although initial use of the old register proved a bit cumbersome, some researchers may find it helpful as a more detailed guide to the collection.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Literary rights reserved by donor.

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Preferred Citation

Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.

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Administrative Information

Related Materials

Photographs and audio-visual materials were transferred to the Multimedia Division of Special Collections (P0181 and A0181).

Acquisition Information

Boxes 1-49 were donated by Stanley D. and June Kremer Lyman in 1979 (14 linear feet).

Boxes 50-51 were donated by Stanley D. and June Kremer Lyman in 1986 (1 linear feet).

Processing Note

Processed by Marijane Lambert, Marlene Lewis, and Drew Staffanson in 1979 and 1989.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid prepared by Marijane Lambert, Marlene Lewis, and Drew Staffanson.
1979 (last modified: 1989, 2019 and 2020)

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