25 U.S.C. § 345: Actions for allotments

Summary

People of Indian blood or descent who are entitled to a land allotment, who claim they should get one, or who say they were wrongly denied one can start or defend a lawsuit in a U.S. district court over that right. The district courts can hear these cases, and the claimant is the plaintiff while the United States is the defendant. If the court rules for the claimant and that decision is sent to the Secretary of the Interior, it counts the same as if the Secretary had approved the allotment. This does not apply to lands held by the Five Civilized Tribes or lands in the Quapaw Indian Agency. Either side may appeal.

Title 25, §345

Indians, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

All persons who are in whole or in part of Indian blood or descent who are entitled to an allotment of land under any law of Congress, or who claim to be so entitled to land under any allotment Act or under any grant made by Congress, or who claim to have been unlawfully denied or excluded from any allotment or any parcel of land to which they claim to be lawfully entitled by virtue of any Act of Congress, may commence and prosecute or defend any action, suit, or proceeding in relation to their right thereto in the proper district court of the United States; and said district courts are given jurisdiction to try and determine any action, suit, or proceeding arising within their respective jurisdictions involving the right of any person, in whole or in part of Indian blood or descent, to any allotment of land under any law or treaty (and in said suit the parties thereto shall be the claimant as plaintiff and the United States as party defendant); and the judgment or decree of any such court in favor of any claimant to an allotment of land shall have the same effect, when properly certified to the Secretary of the Interior, as if such allotment had been allowed and approved by him, but this provision shall not apply to any lands now held by either of the Five Civilized Tribes, nor to any of the lands within the Quapaw Indian Agency: Provided, That the right of appeal shall be allowed to either party as in other cases.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Act Mar. 3, 1911, conferred the powers and duties of the former circuit courts upon the district courts.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Repeal of Section as to Osage IndiansAct June 28, 1906, ch. 3572, § 1, 34 Stat. 540, provided in part that: “the provisions of the Act of Congress of August fifteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, Twenty-eighth Statutes at Large, page three hundred and five [this section], granting persons of Indian blood who have been denied allotments the right to appeal to the courts, are hereby repealed as far as the same relate to the Osage Indians; and the tribal lands and tribal funds of said tribe shall be equally divided among the members of said tribe as hereinafter provided.”

§345 Actions for Allotments

Summary

Title 25, §345

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Citations & Metadata