25 U.S.C. § 185
Section 185 · Protection of Indians desiring civilized life
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Bennett County, South Dakota v. United States (1968)
Most recently applied in Sampson v. Andrus (January 1980)
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.
Whenever any Indian, being a member of any band or tribe with whom the Government has or shall have entered into treaty stipulations, being desirous to adopt the habits of civilized life, has had a portion of the lands belonging to his tribe allotted to him in severalty, in pursuance of such treaty stipulations, the agent and superintendent of such tribe shall take such measures, not inconsistent with law, as may be necessary to protect such Indian in the quiet enjoyment of the lands so allotted to him.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
R.S. §2119 derived from act June 14, 1862, ch. 101, §1, 12 Stat. 427.
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.
Indian Agents
The services of Indian agents have been dispensed with. See note set out under section 64 of this title.