25 U.S.C. § 161
Section 161 · Deposit in Treasury of trust funds
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 17 court decisions — leading case United States v. Mescalero Apache Tribe (1975)
Most recently applied in Chemehuevi Indian Tribe v. United States (June 2024)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to deposit, in the Treasury of the United States, any and all sums held by him on April 1, 1880, or which may be received by him, as Secretary of the Interior and trustee of various Indian tribes, on account of the redemption of United States bonds, or other stocks and securities belonging to the Indian trust fund, and all sums received on account of sales of Indian trust lands, and the sales of stocks lately purchased for temporary investment, whenever he is of the opinion that the best interests of the Indians will be promoted by such deposits, in lieu of investments; and the United States shall pay interest semiannually, from the date of deposit of any and all such sums in the United States Treasury, at the rate per annum stipulated by treaties or prescribed by law, and such payments shall be made in the usual manner, as each may become due, without further appropriation by Congress.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
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.
Appropriations
Section 2 of act June 26, 1934, ch. 756, 48 Stat. 1225, which was classified to section 725a of former Title 31, Money and Finance, repealed the permanent appropriation provided for in the last clause of this section under the title “Interest on Indian trust funds” effective July 1, 1935, and provided that such portions of any Acts as make permanent appropriations to be expended under such account are amended so as to authorize, in lieu thereof, annual appropriations from the general fund of the Treasury in identical terms and in such amounts as now provided by the laws providing such permanent appropriations.