Title 25, IndiansRelease 119-102
§231 Enforcement of State Laws Affecting Health and Education; Entry of State Employees on Indian Lands
Title 25 › CHAPTER 6 — GOVERNMENT OF INDIAN COUNTRY AND RESERVATIONS › SUBCHAPTER I — GENERALLY › § 231
Summary
The Secretary of the Interior must let State agents and employees enter Indian tribal lands under rules he makes to (1) check health and education and enforce sanitation and quarantine, and (2) enforce state school-attendance penalties against Indian children and their parents. The school rule does not apply to a tribe that has a governing body until that body approves it.
Full Legal Text
Title 25, §231
Indians, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
The Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, shall permit the agents and employees of any State to enter upon Indian tribal lands, reservations, or allotments therein (1) for the purpose of making inspection of health and educational conditions and enforcing sanitation and quarantine regulations or (2) to enforce the penalties of State compulsory school attendance laws against Indian children, and parents, or other persons in loco parentis except that this subparagraph (2) shall not apply to Indians of any tribe in which a duly constituted governing body exists until such body has adopted a resolution consenting to such application.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Amendments
1946—Act Aug. 9, 1946, permitted proper State officers to invoke penalties of State compulsory school attendance against Indian children, their parents, or other persons in loco parentis.
Executive Documents
Transfer of Functions
For
Transfer of Functions
of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
25 U.S.C. § 231
Title 25, Indians
Last Updated
Aug 21, 2026
Release point: 119-102