§ 2206 TITLE 25—INDIANS Page 600

(2) if an intestate Indian descendent has no

heir to whom interests in trust or restricted

lands may pass, such interests shall escheat to

the tribe, subject to any non-Indian or nonmember spouse and/or children’s rights as described in paragraph (1) of this section;

(3) if an Indian decedent has devised interests in trust or restricted lands to persons who

are ineligible for such an inheritance by reason of a tribal ordinance enacted pursuant to

this section, the devise shall be voided only if,

while the estate is pending before the Secretary for probate, the tribe acquires such interests by paying to the Secretary, on behalf

of the devisees, the fair market value of such

interests as determined by the Secretary as of

the date of the decedent’s death: Provided,

That any non-Indian or nonmember spouse

and/or children of such decedent who have

been devised such interests may retain, at

their option, a life estate in such interests.

Any ineligible devisee shall also have the right

to renounce his or her devise in favor of a person

or persons who are eligible to inherit.

(b) Life estate; limitation

The right to receive a life estate under the

provisions of this section shall be limited to—

(1) a spouse and/or children who, if they had

been eligible, would have inherited an ownership interest of 10 per centum or more in the

tract of land; or

(2) a spouse and/or children who occupied the

tract as a home at the time of the decedent’s

death.

(Pub. L. 97–459, title II, §206, Jan. 12, 1983, 96

Stat. 2518; Pub. L. 98–608, §1(3), Oct. 30, 1984, 98

Stat. 3172.)

AMENDMENTS

1984—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 98–608 amended subsec. (a)

generally, designating existing provisions as subsec.

(a), substituting provisions allowing adoption of a code

of laws by an Indian tribe to govern descent and distribution of trust or restricted lands within the reservation or jurisdiction of the tribe, subject to the Secretary’s approval for former provisions which allowed

tribes to act ‘‘by appropriate action of its governing

body’’, and inserting proviso and numbered pars. (1) to

(3) and sentence following par. (3). Amendment by Pub.

L. 98–608 corrected errors originally contained in this

section as enacted by Pub. L. 97–459, which as the result

of inadvertent error in the execution of committee

amendments (see House Report No. 97–908, Sept. 30,

1982) to the bill, contained provisions set out following

proviso and preceding final pars. (1) to (3), such provisions consisting of pars. (1) to (5) and subsec. (b), which

were intended to be part of section 204 of Pub. L. 97–459,

which is classified to section 2203 of this title.

Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 98–608 substituted provisions

allowing election of life estate with remainder vesting

in Indians or tribal members who would have been heirs

for former provisions which provided for entitlement to

life estate.

Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 98–608 added subsec. (b).

SECTION REFERRED TO IN OTHER SECTIONS

This section is referred to in section 2207 of this title.

§ 2206. Escheat to tribe of trust or restricted or

controlled lands; fractional interest; Indian

tribal code

(a) Escheat to tribe; rebuttable presumption

No undivided interest held by a member or

nonmember Indian in any tract of trust land or

restricted land within a tribe’s reservation or

outside of a reservation and subject to such

tribe’s jurisdiction shall descend by intestacy or

devise but shall escheat to the reservation’s recognized tribal government, or if outside of a reservation, to the recognized tribal government

possessing jurisdiction over the land if such interest represents 2 per centum or less of the

total acreage in such tract and is incapable of

earning $100 in any one of the five years from

the date of decedent’s death. Where the fractional interest has earned to its owner less than

$100 in any one of the five years before the decedent’s death, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that such interest is incapable of earning $100 in any one of the five years following

the death of the decedent.

(b) Escheatable fractional interest

Nothing in this section shall prohibit the devise of such an escheatable fractional interest to

any other owner of an undivided fractional interest in such parcel or tract of trust or restricted land.

(c) Adoption of Indian tribal code

Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection

(a) of this section, any Indian tribe may, subject

to the approval of the Secretary, adopt its own

code of laws to govern the disposition of interests that are escheatable under this section, and

such codes or laws shall take precedence over

the escheat provisions of subsection (a) of this

section, provided, the Secretary shall not approve any code or law that fails to accomplish

the purpose of preventing further descent or

fractionation of such escheatable interests.

(Pub. L. 97–459, title II, §207, Jan. 12, 1983, 96

Stat. 2519; Pub. L. 98–608, §1(4), Oct. 30, 1984, 98

Stat. 3172; Pub. L. 101–644, title III, §301(a), Nov.

29, 1990, 104 Stat. 4666.)

AMENDMENTS

1990—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 101–644 substituted ‘‘No undivided interest held by a member or nonmember Indian in any tract of trust land or restricted land within

a tribe’s reservation or outside of a reservation and

subject to such tribe’s jurisdiction shall descend by intestacy or devise but shall escheat to the reservation’s

recognized tribal government, or if outside of a reservation, to the recognized tribal government possessing jurisdiction over the land’’ for ‘‘No undivided interest in

any tract of trust or restricted land within a tribe’s

reservation or otherwise subject to a tribe’s jurisdiction shall descend by intestacy or devise but shall escheat to that tribe’’.

1984—Pub. L. 98–608 amended section generally, designating existing provisions as subsec. (a), striking out

‘‘fractional’’ before ‘‘interest in any tract’’, substituting ‘‘descend’’ for ‘‘descendent’’ before ‘‘by intestacy or

devise’’, and ‘‘is incapable of earning $100 in any one of

the five years from the date of decedent’s death’’ for

‘‘has earned to its owner less than $100 in the preceding

year before it is due to escheat’’, and inserting second

sentence and adding subsecs. (b) and (c).

§ 2207. Full faith and credit to tribal actions

under tribal ordinances limiting descent and

distribution of trust or restricted or controlled lands

The Secretary in carrying out his responsibility to regulate the descent and distribution of

trust lands under section 372 of this title, and