Title 48Territories and Insular PossessionsRelease 119-73

§1451 Rights of Indians not impaired; boundaries

Title 48 › Chapter CHAPTER 10— - TERRITORIAL PROVISIONS OF A GENERAL NATURE › § 1451

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Title 23 cannot take away Native American land or property rights in a Territory if a treaty still protects them. Land a tribe’s treaty bars from joining a State or Territory stays excluded until the tribe notifies the President it agrees. "Territory" excludes the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands.

Full Legal Text

Title 48, §1451

Territories and Insular Possessions — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Nothing in title 23 of the Revised Statutes shall be construed to impair the rights of person or property pertaining to the Indians in any Territory, so long as such rights remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to include any Territory which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the consent of such tribe, embraced within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but all such territory shall be excepted out of the boundaries, and constitute no part of any Territory now or hereafter organized until such tribe signifies its assent to the President to be embraced within a particular Territory. As used herein, the term “Territory” does not include the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Title 23 of the Revised Statutes, referred to in text, was in the original “this Title”, meaning title XXIII of the Revised Statutes, consisting of R.S. §§ 1839 to 1976, and which, insofar as classified to the Code, is classified to sections 1451 to 1455, 1457 to 1460a, 1463, 1463a, 1465, 1467 to 1470, 1480, and 1482 to 1485 of this title and to sections 644 to 647, 649, and 655 to 657 of Title 16, Conservation. For complete classification of R.S. §§ 1839 to 1976 to the Code, see Tables. Codification R.S. § 1839 derived from N.M., act Sept. 9, 1850, ch. 49, § 2, 9 Stat. 447. Utah, act Sept. 9, 1850, ch. 51, § 1, 9 Stat. 453. Wash., act Mar. 2, 1853, ch. 90, § 1, 10 Stat. 172. Colo., act Feb. 28, 1861, ch. 59, § 1, 12 Stat. 172. Dak., act Mar. 2, 1861, ch. 86, § 1, 12 Stat. 239. Ariz., act Feb. 24, 1863, ch. 56, § 1, 12 Stat. 664. Idaho, act Mar. 3, 1863, ch. 117, § 1, 12 Stat. 808. Mont., act
May 26, 1864, ch. 95, § 1, 13 Stat. 85. Wyo., act
July 25, 1868, ch. 235, § 1, 15 Stat. 178.

Amendments

1983—Pub. L. 98–213 inserted provisions excluding from the term “Territory” the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

48 U.S.C. § 1451

Title 48Territories and Insular Possessions

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73