§ 343. — Correction of errors in allotments and patents.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 25USC343]
TITLE 25--INDIANS
CHAPTER 9--ALLOTMENT OF INDIAN LANDS
Sec. 343. Correction of errors in allotments and patents
In all cases where it shall appear that a double allotment of land
has been wrongfully or erroneously made by the Secretary of the Interior
to any Indian by an assumed name or otherwise, or where a mistake has
been made in the description of the land inserted in any patent, said
Secretary is authorized and directed, during the time that the United
States may hold the title to the land in trust for any such Indian, and
for which a conditional patent may have been issued, to rectify and
correct such mistakes and cancel any patent which may have been thus
erroneously and wrongfully issued whenever in his opinion the same ought
to be canceled for error in the issue thereof, and if possession of the
original patent cannot be obtained, such cancellation shall be effective
if made upon the records of the Bureau of Land Management; and no
proclamation shall be necessary to open to settlement the lands to which
such an erroneous allotment patent has been canceled, provided such
lands would otherwise be subject to entry: And provided, That such lands
shall not be open to settlement for sixty days after such cancellation:
And further provided, That no conditional patent that has been or that
may be executed in favor of any Indian allottee, excepting in cases
hereinbefore authorized, and excepting in cases where the conditional
patent is relinquished by the patentee or his heirs to take another
allotment, shall be subject to cancellation without authority of
Congress.
(Jan. 26, 1895, ch. 50, 28 Stat. 641; Apr. 23, 1904, ch. 1489, 33 Stat.
297; 1946 Reorg. Plan No. 3, Sec. 403, eff. July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7876,
60 Stat. 1100.)
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,
Secs. 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.
``Bureau of Land Management'' substituted in text for ``General Land
Office'' on authority of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, set out in the
Appendix to Title 5.
