§352b Partial Cancellation; Issuance of New Trust Patents

Summary

When full-ownership patents (fee patents) were given for Indian allotment land during the trust period without the owner's consent, and the owner or their Indian heirs later sold part of the land or mortgaged it but paid those mortgages off, the land that is left unsold and free of liens can be returned to trust status. The allottee or their Indian heirs can ask the Secretary of the Interior to cancel the fee patent for that unsold, unencumbered land and to issue a new trust patent. The new trust patent will follow the form and effect of the Act of February 8, 1887 (24 Stat. 388), will be treated as effective from the date of the original trust patent, and the land will have the same status as if the fee patent had never been issued. The land will also follow any trust extensions made by Executive order for other members of the same tribe. These rules do not apply if the land was sold for unpaid taxes assessed after the date of a mortgage or deed, or if it was sold to satisfy a debt judgment entered after that mortgage or deed, and the redemption period has expired.