§153 Perfecting Bona Fide Claims to Lands; Exchange of Private Lands

Summary

People who started a genuine land claim inside the reserve before September 2, 1902, can finish that claim if they follow the usual rules for settling, living on, and improving the land, the same as for other government land. If parts of the reserve are privately owned, the Secretary of the Interior can trade those private lands for public lands of equal area and value, as long as the public lands are surveyed, empty, not claimed, not mineral, not wooded, and not needed for reservoirs or other public uses. Private owners must, at their own expense, give the government a clear title to their land before any official title is issued for the exchanged public land, and no fee may be charged for issuing those titles. Lands given to the government in an exchange become part of the reserve as if they had been public land from the start. No land scrip may be issued. The State of South Dakota may pick an equal amount of public land in the State to replace unsold parts of section sixteen inside the reserve that the State has not sold and that are not covered by the claims mentioned above.