25 U.S.C. § 163
Section 163 · Roll of membership of Indian tribes
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 12 court decisions — leading case Poodry v. Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians (1996)
Most recently applied in Ordinance 59 Ass'n v. United States Department of the Interior Secretary (December 1998)
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, wherever in his discretion such action would be for the best interest of the Indians, to cause a final roll to be made of the membership of any Indian tribe; such rolls shall contain the ages and quantum of Indian blood, and when approved by the said Secretary are declared to constitute the legal membership of the respective tribes for the purpose of segregating the tribal funds as provided in section 162 1 of this title, and shall be conclusive both as to ages and quantum of Indian blood: Provided, That the foregoing shall not apply to the Five Civilized Tribes or to the Osage Tribe of Indians, or to the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, or the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
Section 162 of this title, referred to in text, was repealed by act June 24, 1938, ch. 648, §2, 52 Stat. 1037. See section 162a of this title.
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.
Cross References
Membership roll for Yakima Tribes, see section 601 et seq. of this title.