24 U.S.C. § 153 — Perfecting bona fide claims to lands; exchange of private lands

submitted 120 years ago by ch. 1127 to r/title-24-HOSPITALS-AND-ASYLUMS · 295 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

This law lets people finish claims they had already started, before September 2, 1902, on land inside a certain reserve. They can perfect those claims the normal way, by meeting settlement and residency rules. The Secretary of the Interior can also swap private land inside the reserve for public land of equal value elsewhere, and South Dakota can pick replacement land for any of section 16 that fell inside the reserve.

Anyone with an unperfected, good-faith (bona fide) land claim inside the reserve's boundaries — as long as they started that claim before September 2, 1902 — can still finish perfecting it. They do this the normal way: by meeting the settlement, residence, and improvement requirements that apply to other government land. For land inside the reserve that is privately owned, the Secretary of the Interior may, at their discretion, trade it for public land of similar size and value elsewhere. That public land must be surveyed, vacant, unclaimed, not mineral land, not timbered, and not needed for reservoir sites or other public purposes. Before the government issues a patent for the new public land, the private owner must, at their own expense, sign over full, unencumbered title to their private land using the proper legal documents. No fee is charged for issuing the resulting patents. Once an exchange is complete, the land the private owner gave up becomes part of the reserve, just as if it had been public land there all along. This section does not authorize giving out land scrip. South Dakota is allowed to pick an equal amount of other public land in the state, in place of the parts of section sixteen that fall inside the reserve and have not been sold or otherwise disposed of by the state, and are not already covered by one of the unperfected bona fide claims described above.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

In all cases of unperfected bona fide claims lying within the said boundaries of said reserve, which claims have been properly initiated prior to September 2, 1902, said claims may be perfected upon compliance with the requirements of the laws respecting settlement, residence, improvements, and so forth, in the same manner in all respects as claims are perfected to other Government lands: Provided, That to the extent that the lands within said reserve are held in private ownership the Secretary of the Interior is authorized in his discretion to exchange therefor public lands of like area and value, which are surveyed, vacant, unappropriated, not mineral, not timbered, and not required for reservoir sites or other public uses or purposes. The private owners must, at their expense and by appropriate instruments of conveyance, surrender to the Government a full and unencumbered right and title to the private lands included in any exchange before patents are issued for or any rights attached to the public lands included therein, and no charge of any kind shall be made for issuing such patents. Upon completion of any exchange the lands surrendered to the Government shall become a part of said reserve in a like manner as if they had been public lands at the time of the establishment of said reserve. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to authorize the issuance of any land scrip, and the State of South Dakota is granted the privilege of selecting from the public lands in said State an equal quantity of land in lieu of such portions of section sixteen included within said reserve as have not been sold or disposed of by said State and are not covered by an unperfected bona fide claim as above mentioned.

Source credit: (Mar. 22, 1906, ch. 1127, § 3, 34 Stat. 83.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1906Enacted · Act of Mar. 22, 1906, ch. 1127 · 34 Stat. 83

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 1127 on 1906-03-22.

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