43 U.S.C. § 149 — Exchange of private lands included in Indian reservation for other lands

This section is a single, undivided rule about private land that ends up inside an Indian reservation because of an Executive order. The Secretary of the Interior has discretion to let the owner exchange that private land for other land. The owner, not the government, pays the cost of the exchange. The Secretary sets the rules and regulations that govern how the exchange works. In return for giving up the private land, the owner receives public land instead. That replacement land must meet several conditions: it must be vacant; it must not contain minerals; it must not contain timber; it must already be surveyed; it must equal the original private land in both area and value; and it must be located in the same State or Territory as the original land.