25 U.S.C. § 353 — Sections inapplicable to certain tribes

This section carves out two exceptions. First, none of the rules in the Act this section belongs to apply to the Osage Indians or to the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma. Those groups are handled under separate laws and agreements instead. Second, it fixes a problem with land deeds for the Five Civilized Tribes. Sometimes a deed to tribal land is issued to a person under a tribal agreement or an Act of Congress, but that person dies before the deed gets its final approval. This section says that does not create a problem: the title to the land still passes to that deceased person's heirs, devisees (people named in a will), or assigns (people the deceased had already transferred rights to). It works exactly as if the deed had been issued to that person while they were still alive.