25 U.S.C. § 264 — Trading without license; white persons as clerks

submitted 144 years ago by Congress to r/title-25-INDIANS · 158 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

This law requires most traders to get a license before working in Indian country. Unlicensed traders lose their goods and must pay a $500 penalty. It also makes white clerks of Indian traders get a license, unless trading with the Five Civilized Tribes.

This section has no lettered subsections; it is one continuous rule with two provisos. Anyone who is not a full-blood Indian must have a license to live in Indian country or on an Indian reservation as a trader, to bring goods in to sell there, or to trade there at all. If such a person does any of that without a license, the law says they must "forfeit" — give up — all the merchandise they offered for sale to Indians, or that is found in their possession, and they must also pay a $500 penalty. This rule does not apply to anyone trading with the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, or Seminole tribes — what the text calls the "Five Civilized Tribes" — who live in the Indian country covered by the Union Agency. The law adds a second rule: no white person may work as a clerk for an Indian trader unless the Commissioner of Indian Affairs has licensed them, following regulations the Secretary of the Interior sets. This licensing requirement for clerks does not apply to clerks working for traders who deal with the Five Civilized Tribes.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

Any person other than an Indian of the full blood who shall attempt to reside in the Indian country, or on any Indian reservation, as a trader, or to introduce goods, or to trade therein, without such license, shall forfeit all merchandise offered for sale to the Indians or found in his possession, and shall moreover be liable to a penalty of $500: Provided, That this section shall not apply to any person residing among or trading with the Choctaws, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks, or Seminoles, commonly called the Five Civilized Tribes, residing in said Indian country, and belonging to the Union Agency therein: And provided further, That no white person shall be employed as a clerk by any Indian trader, except such as trade with said Five Civilized Tribes, unless first licensed so to do by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under and in conformity to regulations to be established by the Secretary of the Interior.

Source credit: (R.S. § 2133; July 31, 1882, ch. 360, 22 Stat. 179.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1882Enacted · Act of July 31, 1882, ch. 360 · 22 Stat. 179

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