§319 — Title 25 Indians | U.S. Code

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior can grant an easement to build, run, and maintain telephone and telegraph lines and offices across certain Indian lands. These lands include: reservations (land set aside for a tribe); tribal lands in the former Indian Territory; lands held for Indian agencies or schools; and individual allotments not yet fully transferred with the right to sell. No lines may be built until the Secretary approves the authorization and the exact route maps. The Secretary sets and approves the payment to tribes and individual allottees. If the lines are not subject to State or Territorial taxes, the owner must pay an annual fee to the Secretary for the benefit of the Indians, not exceeding $5 for each ten miles of line. Lines must follow the Secretary’s rules. Owners still must pay any lawful state, territorial, or municipal taxes. Congress keeps the right to regulate tolls, and incorporated cities and towns may control construction and tax within their limits.

Title 25, §319

Indians — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and empowered to grant a right of way, in the nature of an easement, for the construction, operation, and maintenance of telephone and telegraph lines and offices for general telephone and telegraph business through any Indian reservation, through any lands held by an Indian tribe or nation in the former Indian Territory, through any lands reserved for an Indian agency or Indian school, or for other purpose in connection with the Indian service, or through any lands which have been allotted in severalty to any individual Indian under any law or treaty, but which have not been conveyed to the allottee with full power of alienation, upon the terms and conditions herein expressed. No such lines shall be constructed across Indian lands, as above mentioned, until authority therefor has first been obtained from the Secretary of the Interior, and the maps of definite location of the lines shall be subject to his approval. The compensation to be paid the tribes in their tribal capacity and the individual allottees for such right of way through their lands shall be determined in such manner as the Secretary of the Interior may direct, and shall be subject to his final approval; and where such lines are not subject to State or Territorial taxation the company or owner of the line shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior, for the use and benefit of the Indians, such annual tax as he may designate, not exceeding $5 for each ten miles of line so constructed and maintained; and all such lines shall be constructed and maintained under such rules and regulations as said Secretary may prescribe. But nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to exempt the owners of such lines from the payment of any tax that may be lawfully assessed against them by either State, Territorial, or municipal authority; and Congress hereby expressly reserves the right to regulate the tolls or charges for the transmission of messages over any lines constructed under the provisions of this section: Provided, That incorporated cities and towns into or through which such telephone or telegraphic lines may be constructed shall have the power to regulate the manner of construction therein, and nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to deny the right of municipal taxation in such towns and cities.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification The “former Indian Territory”, referred to in text, was in the original “Indian Territory”, and has been designated as former Indian Territory by virtue of the admission of such former Territory and the Territory of Oklahoma to the Union as the State of Oklahoma, pursuant to act June 16, 1906, ch. 3335, 34 Stat. 267. Section is comprised of the first par. of section 3 of act Mar. 3, 1901. The second par. of such section 3 is classified to section 357 of this title.

§319 Rights-of-way for telephone and telegraph lines

Summary

Title 25, §319

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

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