Title 25 — IndiansRelease 119-73
§280a Land in Alaska for schools or missions; general land laws
Title 25 › Chapter CHAPTER 7— - EDUCATION OF INDIANS › § 280a
Summary
Protects Indians and people running schools or missions in Alaska who were using or occupying land on June 6, 1900. Mission stations up to 640 acres, with the buildings and improvements they put there, stay with their religious societies. The Secretary of the Interior must have those lands surveyed and give patents to the societies. This does not make the United States’ general land laws apply in the Territory.
Full Legal Text
Title 25, §280a
Indians — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
The Indians or persons conducting schools or missions in the Territory of Alaska shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation on June 6, 1900, and the land, at any station not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, occupied on said date as missionary stations among the Indian tribes in the section, with the improvements thereon erected by or for such societies, shall be continued in the occupancy of the several religious societies to which the missionary stations respectively belong, and the Secretary of the Interior is directed to have such lands surveyed in compact form as nearly as practicable and patents issued for the same to the several societies to which they belong; but nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to put in force in the Territory the general land laws of the United States.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
References in Text
This Act, referred to in text, means act June 6, 1900, ch. 786, 31 Stat. 321. For complete classification of Title I of this act to the Code, see Tables. Title III of this act provided for the Alaska Civil Code. Codification Section was formerly classified to section 356 of Title 48, Territories and Insular Possessions.
Prior Provisions
Similar provisions were contained in act May 17, 1884, ch. 53, § 8, 23 Stat. 26, which provided in part that the Indians or other persons in the district should not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation or claimed by them, but reserved for future legislation the terms under which such persons might acquire title. That section contained a further provision, similar to the provision contained in this section, continuing lands occupied as missionary stations in the occupancy of the several religious societies.
Executive Documents
Transfer of Functions
For
Transfer of Functions
of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff.
May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. Admission of Alaska as StateAdmission of Alaska into the Union was accomplished Jan. 3, 1959, on issuance of Proc. No. 3269, Jan. 3, 1959, 24 F.R. 81, 73, Stat. c16, as required by section 1 and 8(c) of Pub. L. 85–508,
July 7, 1958, 72 Stat. 339, set out as notes preceding section 21 of Title 48, Territories and Insular Possessions.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
25 U.S.C. § 280a
Title 25 — Indians
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73