Title: Stigler Act Amendments of 2018
Policy area: Native Americans

Summary:
Stigler Act Amendments of 2017
This bill amends the Act of August 4, 1947 (commonly known as the Stigler Act) to revise the qualifications that must be met by a person who inherits land originally allotted to members of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma (the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole tribes) for that land to remain in restricted status. When land is in restricted status, it is not subject to taxation and may not be sold or transferred without permission of the Department of the Interior.
Under current law, the restricted fee status of land allotted to the Five Tribes is maintained only if the individual holding title has at least 50% Indian blood from one of the Five Tribes. This bill removes this requirement. Thus, the restricted fee status is maintained for all lineal descendants of an original enrollee whose name appears on the membership rolls of the Five Tribes.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2606 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2606

To amend the Act of August 4, 1947 (commonly known as the Stigler Act), 
    with respect to restrictions applicable to Indians of the Five 
         Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 23, 2017

    Mr. Cole (for himself, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Lucas, and Mr. Russell) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Act of August 4, 1947 (commonly known as the Stigler Act), 
    with respect to restrictions applicable to Indians of the Five 
         Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Stigler Act Amendments of 2017''.

SEC. 2. IN GENERAL.

    The first section of the Act of August 4, 1947 (61 Stat. 731, 
chapter 458), is amended--
            (1) in the matter before subsection (a), by striking ``That 
        all restrictions'' and all that follows through subsection (a) 
        and inserting the following:
    ``Sec. 1.  All restrictions against alienation, conveyance, lease, 
mortgage, creation of liens, or other encumbrances upon all lands, 
including oil and gas or other mineral interests, in Oklahoma belonging 
to a lineal descendant by blood of an original enrollee whose name 
appears on the Final Indian Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes in 
Indian Territory, whether acquired by allotment, inheritance, devise, 
gift, purchase, exchange, partition, partition sale, or by purchase 
with restricted funds, of whatever degree of Indian blood, and whether 
enrolled or unenrolled, shall be and are hereby, extended until an Act 
of Congress determines otherwise, including, without limitation, those 
interests in the estate of a decedent Indian who died before the date 
of enactment of Stigler Act Amendments of 2017 that were, immediately 
prior to the decedent's death, subject to restrictions that had not, as 
of said date, been--
            ``(1) the subject of a final order issued by an Oklahoma 
        district court or a United States district court determining 
        the decedent's heirs or devisees or otherwise determining the 
        ownership of said interests;
            ``(2) conveyed by the decedent's undetermined heirs or 
        devisees by deed approved by an Oklahoma district court; or
            ``(3) conveyed by the decedent's undetermined heirs or 
        devisees of less than one-half degree of Indian blood with or 
        without Oklahoma district court approval.
    ``Sec. 2. (a) Except as provided in subsection (f), subsection (g), 
subsection (h), and subsection (i), no conveyance, including an oil and 
gas or mineral lease, of any interest in the restricted lands described 
in this section shall be valid unless approved in open court by the 
district court of the county in Oklahoma in which the land is 
situated.'';
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) by striking ``county judge'' and inserting 
                ``district judge''; and
                    (B) by striking ``Proceedings for approval of 
                conveyances by restricted heirs or devisees'' and 
                inserting ``Proceedings for approval of conveyances'';
            (3) in subsection (c), by striking ``best interest of the 
        Indian'' and inserting ``best interest of the grantor''; and
            (4) by adding before the period at the end the following: 
        ``; (h) nothing contained in this section shall limit or affect 
        the right of an Indian owner of restricted lands described in 
        this Act to seek and obtain Secretarial removal of restrictions 
        on all or any portion of said restricted lands in accordance 
        with any applicable Federal law; and (i) nothing contained in 
        this section shall invalidate the alienation, conveyance, 
        lease, including oil and gas or other mineral leases, mortgage, 
        creation of liens, or other encumbrance of any lands, if such 
        action was effective before the date of enactment of the 
        Stigler Act Amendments of 2017 and valid under the law then in 
        effect.''.

SEC. 3. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.

    The Act of August 4, 1947 (61 Stat. 731, chapter 458), is amended--
            (1) in section 5, by striking ``of one-half or more Indian 
        blood,'';
            (2) in section 6(c), by striking ``of one-half or more 
        Indian blood,''; and
            (3) in section 8, by striking ``of one-half or more Indian 
        blood,''.

SEC. 4. REPEALS.

    The following are repealed:
            (1) Section 1 of the Act of August 11, 1955 (69 Stat. 666, 
        chapter 768).
            (2) Section 2 of the Act of August 4, 1947 (61 Stat. 731, 
        chapter 458).
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