§870 — Title 43 Public Lands | U.S. Code

Summary

Numbered school land grants are extended to include school sections that contain minerals, unless that land was already given to a State or picked and approved as a replacement for a numbered section. The State gets ownership of those mineral sections in the same way and at the same time as nonmineral school sections, and the same third‑party rights that apply to nonmineral grants also apply here. When the State sells or gives any of these lands, the sale must keep all coal and other minerals for the State. The State keeps the right to explore for, mine, and remove those minerals. If the State has not yet sold the minerals, it may lease them and must use the rents, royalties, and bonuses to support the common or public schools. If anyone disposes of lands or minerals against these rules, the United States can take the property back through a court action brought by the Attorney General. Lands that are inside U.S. reservations, set aside for water power, involved in a pending federal court case, or covered by a valid federal application, claim, or right are excluded until that reservation, application, claim, or right ends. Lands in Alaska are also excluded. However, an outstanding federal mineral lease or lease application on a numbered school section does not stop the grant to the State. Sections surveyed before July 11, 1956 that were withheld only because of a federal lease are now granted to the State, and the State steps into the United States’ role as lessor under the lease. Sections surveyed on or after July 11, 1956 with an outstanding federal lease are granted to the State when the survey is finished, and the State becomes the lessor. On a State’s request, the Secretary of the Interior must issue patents under section 871a, and if a lease is active the patent will say the State succeeded to the United States as lessor. If a single lease covers land partly owned by the State and partly by the United States, rents and royalties are split by the share of acreage each owns. In this part, “lease” includes “permit” and “lessor” includes “grantor.”

Title 43, §870

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Subject to the provisions of subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section, the several grants to the States of numbered sections in place for the support or in aid of common or public schools be, and they are, extended to embrace numbered school sections mineral in character, unless land has been granted to and/or selected by and certified or approved, to any such State or States as indemnity or in lieu of any land so granted by numbered sections. (a)

(b)The additional grant made by this section is upon the express condition that all sales, grants, deeds, or patents for any of the lands so granted shall hereafter be subject to and contain a reservation to the State of all the coal and other minerals in the lands so sold, granted, deeded, or patented, together with the right to prospect for, mine, and remove the same. The coal and other mineral deposits in such lands not heretofore disposed of by the State shall be subject to lease by the State as the State legislature may direct, the proceeds and rentals and royalties therefrom to be utilized for the support or in aid of the common or public schools: Provided, That any lands or minerals hereafter disposed of contrary to the provisions of this section shall be forfeited to the United States by appropriate proceedings instituted by the Attorney General for that purpose in the United States district court for the district in which the property or some part thereof is located.

(c)Except as provided in subsection (d), any lands included within the limits of existing reservations of or by the United States, or specifically reserved for water-power purposes, or included in any pending suit or proceeding in the courts of the United States, or subject to or included in any valid application, claim, or right initiated or held under any of the existing laws of the United States, unless or until such reservation, application, claim, or right is extinguished, relinquished, or canceled, and all lands in the Territory of Alaska, are excluded from the provisions of this section.

(d)(1)Notwithstanding subsection (c), the fact that there is outstanding on any numbered school section, whether or not mineral in character, at the time of its survey a mineral lease or leases entered into by the United States, or an application therefor, shall not prevent the grant of such numbered school section to the State concerned as provided by this section and section 871 of this title.

(2)Any such numbered school section which has been surveyed prior to July 11, 1956, and which has not been granted to the State concerned solely by reason of the fact that there was outstanding on it at the time of the survey a mineral lease or leases entered into by the United States, or an application therefor, is hereby granted by the United States to such State under this section as if it had not been so leased; and the State shall succeed the position of the United States as lessor under such lease or leases.

(3)Any such numbered school section which is surveyed on or after July 11, 1956, and on which there is outstanding at the time of such survey a mineral lease or leases entered into by the United States, shall (unless excluded from the provisions of this section by subsection (c) for a reason other than the existence of an outstanding lease) be granted to the State concerned immediately upon completion of such survey; and the State shall succeed to the position of the United States as lessor under such lease or leases.

(4)The Secretary of the Interior shall, upon application by a State, issue patents to the State for the lands granted by this section and section 871 of this title, in accordance with section 871a 11 See References in Text note below. of this title. Such patent shall, if the lease is then outstanding, include a statement that the State succeeded to the position of the United States as lessor at the time the title vested in the State.

(5)Where at the time rents, royalties, and bonuses accrue the lands or deposits covered by a single lease are owned in part by the State and in part by the United States, the rents, royalties, and bonuses shall be allocated between them in proportion to the acreage in said lease owned by each.

(6)As used in this subsection, “lease” includes “permit” and “lessor” includes “grantor”.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 871a of this title, referred to in subsec. (d)(4), was repealed by Pub. L. 94–579, title VII, § 705(a), Oct. 21, 1976, 90 Stat. 2792.

Amendments

1956—Subsec. (d). Act

July 11, 1956, provided that numbered school sections under mineral leases may be granted to a State, whether or not the sections are mineral in character, and added subpar. (6). 1954—Subsec. (c). Act Apr. 22, 1954, § 2, substituted “Except as provided in subsection (d), any” for “any”. Subsec. (d). Act Apr. 22, 1954, § 1, added subsec. (d). 1932—Subsec. (b). Act

May 2, 1932, inserted “hereafter” in two places and “not heretofore disposed of by the State” after “mineral deposits in such lands”. Subsec. (c). Act

May 2, 1932, inserted “reservation” before “application”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1932 AmendmentAct

May 2, 1932, ch. 151, § 2, 47 Stat. 141, provided that: “This amendatory Act [amending this section] shall take effect as of

January 25, 1927; and in any case in which a State has selected lieu lands since such date under the Act approved

February 28, 1891 (26 Stat. 796) [section 851 and 852 of this title], and still retains title thereto, such State may, within ninety days after the date of the enactment of this Act [

May 2, 1932], relinquish to the United States all right, title, and interest in such lands and shall thereupon be entitled to all the benefits of the Act of

January 25, 1927 [section 870 and 871 of this title], as amended by this Act.”

Executive Documents

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.

§870 Grants of land in aid of common or public schools; extension to those mineral in character; effect of leases