16 U.S.C. § 441l — Exchange of lands; transfer from Federal agency to administrative jurisdiction of Secretary; terms and conditions of purchase

This section deals with land inside a former Air Force gunnery range near Badlands National Park. Congress starts by laying out its findings, lettered (A) through (G): (A) most of the land added to the park by section 441j sits inside the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation; (B) that land is also part of a much bigger tract — 43 miles long and 12 1/2 miles wide, in the reservation's northwest corner — that the U.S. Air Force has used as a gunnery (bombing-practice) range since early in World War II; (C) within that gunnery range, the tribal land was leased by the federal government, while land belonging to individual owners (mostly Indians) was purchased by the federal government; (D) the Air Force has declared most of the gunnery-range land excess to its needs, and the National Park Service has requested that excess land under the general federal-property laws; (E) both the leased tribal land and the excess land inside the enlarged park are needed for the park; (F) the rest of the excess land in the gunnery range — the part not needed for the park — should go back to the Indian people who used to own it; and (G) the Oglala Sioux Tribe doesn't want to sell its tribal land to be included in the park, but is willing to trade it, or interests in it, for the excess gunnery-range land, since that formerly tribal land inside the range should go back to Indian ownership anyway. Based on these findings, Congress declares that this kind of exchange serves the national interest, and authorizes the following: (a) All federal land and interests in land within the Badlands Air Force gunnery range that sit outside the park boundaries, and that have been (or later are) declared excess to the Air Force's needs, transfer to the Secretary of the Interior's administrative control — with no transfer of money needed to make that happen. (b) Any former owner of a tract of this land — Indian or non-Indian, whether their title was held in trust or in fee — may buy that tract back from the Secretary of the Interior. The terms are: (1) Price. A former Indian owner pays the total amount the United States originally paid to acquire the tract and all interests in it, plus interest from the acquisition date, at a rate the Secretary of the Treasury sets based on the average market yield on U.S. government securities at that time, rounded to the nearest eighth of one percent. A former non-Indian owner instead pays the tract's present fair market value, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior. (2) Payment terms. At the time of purchase, the buyer must pay at least $100, or 20 percent of the price — whichever is less. The rest may be paid off over as long as 20 years, with interest set the same way, based on the market yield on 20-year U.S. government securities. (3) Title. If the tract was held in trust status when the United States acquired it, the title to the repurchased tract is again held in trust for the buyer. Otherwise, title is conveyed to the buyer, subject to a mortgage or other security instrument the Secretary considers appropriate. If a tract bought this way is put up for resale within the following ten years, the Oglala Sioux Tribe must get the first chance to buy it. (4) Lien and default. Any unpaid balance of the price is a lien against the land (if it's trust land) and against all rents, bonuses, and royalties it generates. If a buyer misses a payment, the Secretary can enforce the lien however he judges appropriate, including foreclosing and conveying the land to the Oglala Sioux Tribe. (5) Deadline to apply. A former owner must file an application to buy within one year of the date a notice is published in the Federal Register saying the tract has been transferred to the Secretary's jurisdiction. (6) Limit on co-applicants. No more than five former owners of an interest in a tract may apply together. If more than one application comes in for the same tract, the applicants must agree on which five (or fewer) former owners will make the purchase. If they can't agree, the Secretary rejects all the applications for that tract. (7) "Former owner" defined. This means each person the United States originally acquired the land interest from — or, if that person has died, their spouse, or if the spouse has also died, their children.