Volume 97 · 365
Public Law 98–64
To provide that per capita payments to Indians may be made by tribal governments, and for other purposes.
Approved August 2, 1983
Statutory text
An Act
To provide that per capita payments to Indians may be made by tribal governments, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That funds which
Indians, per capita payments.
are held in trust by the Secretary of the Interior (hereinafter referred to as the “Secretary”) for an Indian tribe and which are to be distributed per capita to members of that tribe may be so distributed by either the Secretary or, at the request of the governing body of the tribe and subject to the approval of the Secretary, the tribe. Any funds so distributed shall be paid by the Secretary or the tribe directly to the members involved or, if such members are minors or have been legally determined not competent to handle their own affairs, to a parent or guardian of such members or to a trust fund for such minors or legal incompetents as determined by the governing body of the tribe.
Sec. 2.
Funds distributed under this Act shall not be liable for
Funding liability.
the payment of previously contracted obligations except as may be provided by the governing body of the tribe and distributions of such funds shall be subject to the provisions of section 7 of the Act of October 19, 1973 (87 Stat. 466), as amended.
Nothing in this Act shall affect the requirements of the Act of October 19, 1973 (87 Stat. 466), as amended, or of any plan approved thereunder, with respect to the use or distribution of funds subject to that Act: Provided, That per capita payments made pursuant to a plan approved under that Act may be made by an Indian tribe as provided in section 1 of this Act if all other provisions of the 1973 Act are met, including but not limited to, the protection of the interests of minors and incompetents in such funds.
Nothing in this Act, except the provisions of subsection (a)
Shoshone and Arapahoe Tribes of the Wind River Reservation, Wyo.
Regulations.
of this section, shall apply to the Shoshone Tribe and the Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming.
Sec. 3.
The Secretary shall, by regulation, establish reasonable standards for the approval of tribal payments pursuant to section 1 of this Act and, where approval is given under such regulations, the United States shall not be liable with respect to any distribution of funds by a tribe under this Act.
Nothing in this Act shall otherwise absolve the United States from any other responsibility to the Indians, including those which derive from the trust relationship and from any treaties, Executive orders, or agreements between the United States and any Indian tribe.
Sec. 4.
The following provision of section 1 of the Act of June 10, 1896 (29 Stat. 3360), is repealed: “That any sums of money hereafter to be paid per capita to individual Indians shall be paid to said Indians by an officer of the Government designated by the Secretary of the Interior.”.
Section 19 of the Act of June 28, 1898 (30 Stat. 502), is repealed.
Approved August 2, 1983.