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Title 25, IndiansRelease 119-102

§82 Payments Under Contracts; Aiding in Making Prohibited Contracts

Title 25 › CHAPTER 3 — AGREEMENTS WITH INDIANS › SUBCHAPTER II — CONTRACTS WITH INDIANS › § 82

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

U.S. officers may not pay agents or lawyers under a contract except for the fees they actually earned. Money owed to a tribe or to individual Indians must be paid by the United States, through its own officers or agents, to the people who are entitled to it. No one gets paid for services under the contract until they file a sworn statement with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs listing each service, with dates and facts. The Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner decide if the contract was fulfilled. If it was, they pay the full amount; if not, they pay only for the work actually done.

Full Legal Text

Title 25, §82

Indians, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

No money shall be paid to any agent or attorney by an officer of the United States under any such contract or agreement, other than the fees due him for services rendered thereunder; but the moneys due the tribe, Indian, or Indians, as the case may be, shall be paid by the United States, through its own officers or agents, to the party or parties entitled thereto; and no money or thing shall be paid to any person for services under such contract or agreement, until such person shall have first filed with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs a sworn statement, showing each particular act of service under the contract, giving date and fact in detail, and the Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall determine therefrom whether, in their judgment, such contract or agreement has been complied with or fulfilled; if so, the same may be paid, and, if not, it shall be paid in proportion to the services rendered under the contract.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification R.S. § 2104 derived from act May 21, 1872, ch. 177, § 3, 17 Stat. 137.

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. § 82

Title 25, Indians

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102