25 U.S.C. § 352b — Partial cancellation; issuance of new trust patents

submitted 99 years ago by ch. 215 to r/title-25-INDIANS · 271 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

This section covers fee patents issued to Indian allottees without their request. If part was sold or mortgaged, the Secretary can restore trust status to what's left. This doesn't apply if the land was later sold for unpaid taxes or debt after redemption rights expired.

This section covers Indian allotments where a fee-simple patent was issued during the trust period, without the patentee or their Indian heirs asking for it or agreeing to it, and where the patentee or heirs later sold part of that land, or mortgaged it and then paid off the mortgage. For the land that's left over -- not sold, and not still under a mortgage -- the Secretary of the Interior can, at the request of the allottee or their Indian heirs, choose to cancel the fee patent for just that remaining land and issue a new trust patent for it instead. That new trust patent works the same way as one issued under an 1887 law, and is treated as if it dated back to the original trust patent. The land also stays open to any trust extensions the President later grants to other allotments belonging to the same tribe. Once this happens, the land goes back to the same status as if the fee patent had never been issued. This section (and section 352a) doesn't apply if the land was later sold for unpaid taxes assessed after the mortgage or deed date, or sold to satisfy a court judgment for a debt taken on after that date -- as long as the time to redeem the land has already run out.

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

Where patents in fee have been issued for Indian allotments, during the trust period, without application by or consent of the patentees, and such patentees or Indian heirs have sold a part of the land included in the patents, or have mortgaged the lands or any part thereof and such mortgages have been satisfied, such lands remaining undisposed of and without incumbrance by the patentees, or Indian heirs, may be given a trust patent status and the Secretary of the Interior is, on application of the allottee or his or her Indian heirs, hereby authorized, in his discretion, to cancel patents in fee so far as they cover such unsold lands not encumbered by mortgage, and to cause new trust patents to be issued therefor, to the allottees or their Indian heirs, of the form and legal effect as provided by the Act of February 8, 1887 (24 Stat. 388), such patents to be effective from the date of the original trust patents, and the land shall be subject to any extensions of the trust made by Executive order on other allotments of members of the same tribe, and such lands shall have the same status as though such fee patents had never been issued: Provided, That this section and section 352a of this title shall not apply where any such lands have been sold for unpaid taxes assessed after the date of a mortgage or deed executed by the patentee or his heirs, or sold in execution of a judgment for debt incurred after date of such mortgage or deed, and the period of redemption has expired.

Source credit: (Feb. 26, 1927, ch. 215, § 2, as added Feb. 21, 1931, ch. 271, 46 Stat. 1205.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1927Enacted · Act of Feb. 26, 1927, ch. 215 · 46 Stat. 1205

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 215 on 1927-02-26.

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