Title 25, IndiansRelease 119-102
§264 Trading Without License; White Persons as Clerks
Title 25 › CHAPTER 6 — GOVERNMENT OF INDIAN COUNTRY AND RESERVATIONS › SUBCHAPTER III — TRADERS WITH INDIANS › § 264
Summary
Anyone who is not a full‑blood Indian who lives or trades in Indian country or on a reservation without a license must give up any merchandise and pay a $500 penalty. The rule does not apply to people trading with the Five Civilized Tribes of the Union Agency; white people cannot clerk for Indian traders unless licensed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, except clerks for those tribes.
Full Legal Text
Title 25, §264
Indians, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
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.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification R.S. § 2133 derived from act
June 30, 1834, ch. 161, § 4, 4 Stat. 729. Act
July 31, 1882, inserted “of the full blood” and “or on any Indian reservation” and added the two provisos.
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. § 264
Title 25, Indians
Last Updated
Aug 21, 2026
Release point: 119-102