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Title 25 — IndiansRelease 119-73not60

§280a Land in Alaska for Schools or Missions; General Land Laws

Title 25 › Chapter 7— EDUCATION OF INDIANS › § 280a

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

People running schools or missions for Alaska Native tribes who were actually using or living on land on June 6, 1900 must be allowed to keep that land. Any missionary station occupied on that date, up to 640 acres, and the buildings or improvements on it, will remain with the religious society that used it. The Secretary of the Interior must have those lands surveyed in a compact way and give official ownership papers (patents) to the societies. This does not make the United States’ general land laws apply in the Alaska Territory.

Full Legal Text

Title 25, §280a

Indians — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Indians or persons conducting schools or missions in the Territory of Alaska shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation on June 6, 1900, and the land, at any station not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, occupied on said date as missionary stations among the Indian tribes in the section, with the improvements thereon erected by or for such societies, shall be continued in the occupancy of the several religious societies to which the missionary stations respectively belong, and the Secretary of the Interior is directed to have such lands surveyed in compact form as nearly as practicable and patents issued for the same to the several societies to which they belong; but nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to put in force in the Territory the general land laws of the United States.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This Act, referred to in text, means act June 6, 1900, ch. 786, 31 Stat. 321. For complete classification of Title I of this act to the Code, see Tables. Title III of this act provided for the Alaska Civil Code. Codification Section was formerly classified to section 356 of Title 48, Territories and Insular Possessions.

Prior Provisions

Similar provisions were contained in act May 17, 1884, ch. 53, § 8, 23 Stat. 26, which provided in part that the Indians or other persons in the district should not be disturbed in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation or claimed by them, but reserved for future legislation the terms under which such persons might acquire title. That section contained a further provision, similar to the provision contained in this section, continuing lands occupied as missionary stations in the occupancy of the several religious societies.

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. 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.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

25 U.S.C. § 280a

Title 25 — Indians

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60