---
kind: "section"
citation: "25 U.S.C. § 264"
title: "25"
title_heading: "Indians"
number: "264"
heading: "Trading without license; white persons as clerks"
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/25/264"
units:
  - "Chapter 6 — Government of Indian Country and Reservations"
  - "Subchapter III — Traders with Indians"
---

# §264. Trading without license; white persons as clerks


Any person other than an [Indian](/usc/25/1934.md) of the full blood who shall attempt to reside in the [Indian](/usc/25/1934.md) country, or on any [Indian reservation](/usc/25/2902.md?p=8), as a trader, or to introduce goods, or to trade therein, without such license, shall forfeit all merchandise offered for sale to the [Indians](/usc/25/1934.md) 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](/usc/25/3402.md?p=2-A), residing in said [Indian](/usc/25/1934.md) country, and belonging to the Union Agency therein: And provided further, That no white person shall be employed as a clerk by any [Indian](/usc/25/1934.md) trader, except such as trade with said Five Civilized [Tribes](/usc/25/3402.md?p=2-A), unless first licensed so to do by the Commissioner of [Indian](/usc/25/1934.md) Affairs, under and in conformity to regulations to be established by the [Secretary](/usc/25/5130.md?p=1) of the Interior.


## Source credit

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

## Notes

### 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.