25 U.S.C. § 11
Section 11 · Employee or employees to sign approval of tribal deeds
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 132 court decisions — leading case Robert W. Otto v. City of Boca Raton, Florida (2020)
Most recently applied in Worth Johnson v. Protective Life Insurance Company (March 2024)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 12 U.S.C. § 11 · 13 U.S.C. § 11 · 16 U.S.C. § 11
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to designate an employee or employees of the Department of the Interior to sign, under the direction of the Secretary, in his name and for him, his approval of tribal deeds to allottees, to purchasers of town lots, to purchasers of unallotted lands, to persons, corporations, or organizations for lands reserved to them under the law for their use and benefit, and to any tribal deeds made and executed according to law for any of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians in Oklahoma.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
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, §§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.