CITE

    18 USC Sec. 1154                                            01/05/2009

EXPCITE

    TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
    PART I - CRIMES
    CHAPTER 53 - INDIANS

HEAD

    Sec. 1154. Intoxicants dispensed in Indian country

STATUTE

      (a) Whoever sells, gives away, disposes of, exchanges, or barters
    any malt, spirituous, or vinous liquor, including beer, ale, and
    wine, or any ardent or other intoxicating liquor of any kind
    whatsoever, except for scientific, sacramental, medicinal or
    mechanical purposes, or any essence, extract, bitters, preparation,
    compound, composition, or any article whatsoever, under any name,
    label, or brand, which produces intoxication, to any Indian to whom
    an allotment of land has been made while the title to the same
    shall be held in trust by the Government, or to any Indian who is a
    ward of the Government under charge of any Indian superintendent,
    or to any Indian, including mixed bloods, over whom the Government,
    through its departments, exercises guardianship, and whoever
    introduces or attempts to introduce any malt, spirituous, or vinous
    liquor, including beer, ale, and wine, or any ardent or
    intoxicating liquor of any kind whatsoever into the Indian country,
    shall, for the first offense, be fined under this title or
    imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and, for each
    subsequent offense, be fined under this title or imprisoned not
    more than five years, or both.
      (b) It shall be a sufficient defense to any charge of introducing
    or attempting to introduce ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or
    intoxicating liquors into the Indian country that the acts charged
    were done under authority, in writing, from the Department of the
    Army or any officer duly authorized thereunto by the Department of
    the Army, but this subsection shall not bar the prosecution of any
    officer, soldier, sutler or storekeeper, attacheé, or employee
    of the Army of the United States who barters, donates, or furnishes
    in any manner whatsoever liquors, beer, or any intoxicating
    beverage whatsoever to any Indian.
      (c) The term "Indian country" as used in this section does not
    include fee-patented lands in non-Indian communities or rights-of-
    way through Indian reservations, and this section does not apply
    to such lands or rights-of-way in the absence of a treaty or
    statute extending the Indian liquor laws thereto.

SOURCE

    (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 758; May 24, 1949, ch. 139, Sec.
    27, 63 Stat. 94; Pub. L. 103-322, title XXXIII, Sec. 330016(1)(G),
    (I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

HISTORICAL AND REVISION NOTES

                                 1948 ACT
      Based on sections 241, 242, 244a, 249, 254 of title 25, U.S.C.,
    1940 ed., Indians (R.S. Sec. 2139; Feb. 27, 1877, ch. 69, Sec. 1,
    19 Stat. 244; July 4, 1884, ch. 180, Sec. 1, 23 Stat. 94; July 23,
    1892, ch. 234, 27 Stat. 260; Mar. 2, 1917, ch. 146, Sec. 17, 39
    Stat. 983; June 13, 1932, ch. 245, 47 Stat. 302; Mar. 5, 1934, ch.
    43, 48 Stat. 396; June 27, 1934, ch. 846, 48 Stat. 1245; June 15,
    1938, ch. 435, Sec. 1, 52 Stat. 696).
      Section consolidates sections 241, 242, 244a, and 249 of title
    25, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Indians. The portion of section 241 of said
    title which defined the substantive offense became subsection (a);
    the portion relating to the scope of the term "Indian country" was
    omitted as unnecessary in view of definition of "Indian country" in
    section 1151 of this title; the portion of section 241 of said
    title excepting liquors introduced by the War Department became
    subsection (c), as limited by section 249 of said title; the
    portion respecting making complaint in county of offense, and with
    reference to arraignment, was omitted as covered by rule 5 of the
    Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; and the remainder of section
    241 of said title was incorporated in section 1156 of this title.
      Section 254 of title 25, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Indians, was omitted
    as covered by this section and section 1156 of this title. That
    section was enacted in 1934 and excluded from the Indian liquor
    laws lands outside reservations where the land was no longer held
    by Indians under a trust patent or a deed or patent containing
    restrictions against alienation. Such enactment was prior to the
    June 15, 1938, amendment of section 241 of title 25, U.S.C., 1940
    ed., Indians, in which the term "Indian country" was defined as
    including allotments where the title was held in trust by the
    Government or where it was inalienable without the consent of the
    United States. This provision, by implication, excluded cases where
    there was no trust or restriction on alienation and thereby
    achieved the same result as section 254 of title 25, U.S.C., 1940
    ed., Indians. That amendment also repealed the act of Jan. 30,
    1897, referred to in section 254 of title 25, U.S.C., 1940 ed.,
    Indians. Insofar as the reference in section 254 of said title to
    "special Indian liquor laws" included section 244 of title 25,
    U.S.C., 1940 ed., Indians, the definition of Indian country in
    section 1151 of this title covers section 254 of title 25, U.S.C.,
    1940 ed., Indians.
      Words "or agent" were deleted as there have been no Indian agents
    since 1908. See section 64 of title 25, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Indians,
    and note thereunder.
      Mandatory punishment provisions were rephrased in the alternative
    and provision for commitment for nonpayment of fine was deleted.
    This change was also recommended by United States District Judge T.
    Blake Kennedy on the ground that, otherwise, section would be
    practically meaningless since, in most cases, offenders cannot pay
    a fine.
      The exception of intoxicating liquor for scientific, sacramental,
    medicinal or mechanical purposes was inserted for the same reason
    that makes this exception appropriate to section 1262 of this
    title.
      Minor changes were made in phraseology.
                                 1949 ACT
      Subsection (a) of this section [section 27(a)] substitutes
    "Department of the Army" for "War Department", in subsection (b) of
    section 1154 of title 18, U.S.C., to conform to such redesignation
    by act July 26, 1947 (ch. 343, title 11, Sec. 205(a), 61 Stat. 501
    (5 U.S.C., 1946 ed., Sec. 181-1)). Subsection (b) of this section
    [section 27(b)] adds subsection (c) to such section 1154 in order
    to conform it and section 1156 more closely to the laws relating to
    intoxicating liquor in the Indian country as they have heretofore
    been construed.
                                AMENDMENTS
      1994 - Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103-322 substituted "fined under this
    title" for "fined not more than $500" after "first offense, be" and
    for "fined not more than $2,000" after "subsequent offense, be".
      1949 - Subsec. (b). Act May 24, 1949, Sec. 27(a), substituted
    "Department of the Army" for "War Department".
      Subsec. (c). Act May 24, 1949, Sec. 27(b), added subsec. (c).

TRANSFER OF FUNCTIONS

      Functions of all other officers of Department of the Interior and
    functions of all agencies and employees of such Department, with
    two exceptions, transferred to Secretary of the Interior, with
    power vested in him to authorize their performance or performance
    of any of his functions by any of such officers, agencies, and
    employees, by Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, Secs. 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.