Title 25IndiansRelease 119-73

§334 Allotments to Indians not residing on reservations

Title 25 › Chapter CHAPTER 9— - ALLOTMENT OF INDIAN LANDS › § 334

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

If a Native American does not live on a reservation, or their tribe has no reservation, and they settle on unclaimed public land (surveyed or not), they can apply at the local land office to have that land allotted to them and their children in the same amounts and way as allotments for reservation Indians. If the land is unsurveyed, the allotment will be adjusted after the land is surveyed. Patents will be issued under the same rules as sections 348 and 349. Local land office officers will be paid the fees they would have received under the general public‑land laws. Those fees must be paid from Treasury funds not otherwise appropriated after the Secretary of the Interior sends a statement and certifies it to the Secretary of the Treasury.

Full Legal Text

Title 25, §334

Indians — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Where any Indian not residing upon a reservation, or for whose tribe no reservation has been provided by treaty, act of Congress, or executive order, shall make settlement upon any surveyed or unsurveyed lands of the United States not otherwise appropriated, he or she shall be entitled, upon application to the local land office for the district in which the lands are located, to have the same allotted to him or her, and to his or her children, in quantities and manner as provided in this act for Indians residing upon reservations; and when such settlement is made upon unsurveyed lands the grant to such Indians shall be adjusted upon the survey of the lands so as to conform thereto; and patents shall be issued to them for such lands in the manner and with the restrictions as provided in section 348 and 349 of this title. And the fees to which the officers of such local land office would have been entitled had such lands been entered under the general laws for the disposition of the public lands shall be paid to them, from any moneys in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, upon a statement of an account in their behalf for such fees by the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate, and a certification of such account to the Secretary of the Treasury by the Secretary of the Interior.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This act, referred to in text, is act Feb. 8, 1887, ch. 119, 24 Stat. 388, and is popularly known as the Indian General Allotment Act. For classification of this act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 331 of this title and Tables. The words “provided in section 348 and 349 of this title”, referred to in text, were in the original “as herein provided”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Permanent Appropriation;

Repeals

Effective
July 1, 1935, the permanent appropriation provided for in the last sentence of this section was repealed by act
June 26, 1934, ch. 756, § 1, 48 Stat. 1225.

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. “Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate” substituted in text for “Commissioner of the General Land Office” on authority of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, set out in the Appendix to Title 5.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

25 U.S.C. § 334

Title 25Indians

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73