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Cite as: 524 U. S. 103 (1998)

107

Opinion of the Court

1887 (GAA), 24 Stat. 388, as amended, 25 U. S. C. § 331 et seq.
Section 5 of the GAA provided that parcels of tribal land
would be patented to individual Indians and held in trust
by the United States for a 25-year period, after which the
Federal Government would convey title to the individual
allottees––

“in fee, discharged of said trust and free of all charge or
incumbrance whatsoever . . . . And if any conveyance
shall be made of the lands set apart and allotted as
herein provided, or any contract made touching the
same, before the expiration of the time above mentioned,
such conveyance or contract shall be absolutely null and
void . . . .”

25 U. S. C. § 348.

Section 6 of the GAA, as originally enacted in 1887, provided
that “each and every member of the respective bands or
tribes of Indians to whom allotments have been made shall
have the beneﬁt of and be subject to the laws, both civil and
criminal, of the State or Territory in which they may reside.”
In 1905, this Court interpreted § 6 to mean
24 Stat. 388.
that Indian allottees were subject to plenary state jurisdic-
tion immediately upon issuance of the trust patent. See In
re Heff, 197 U. S. 488.

The following year, Congress reversed the result of In re
Heff by passing the Burke Act, 34 Stat. 182, 25 U. S. C. § 349,
which amended § 6 of the GAA to provide that state jurisdic-
tion did not attach until the end of the 25-year trust period,
when the lands were conveyed to the Indians in fee. The
Burke Act also contained a proviso to the effect that the
Secretary of the Interior could, if “satisﬁed that any Indian
allottee is competent and capable of managing his or her af-
fairs,” authorize issuance of a fee simple patent to the land
before the end of the usual trust period, “and thereafter all
restrictions as to sale, incumbrance, or taxation of said land
shall be removed . . . .”

Ibid.