25 U.S.C. § 502
Section 502 · Purchase of restricted Indian lands; preference to Secretary of the Interior; waiver of preference
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 63 F. Supp. 696 - Frazier v. Goddard (1945)
Most recently applied in Morris v. Watt (January 1981)
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.
Whenever any restricted Indian land or interests in land, other than sales or leases of oil, gas, or other minerals therein, are offered for sale, pursuant to the terms of this subchapter or any other Act of Congress, the Secretary of the Interior shall have a preference right, in his discretion, to purchase the same for or in behalf of any other Indian or Indians of the same or any other tribe, at a fair valuation to be fixed by the appraisement satisfactory to the Indian owner or owners, or if offered for sale at auction said Secretary shall have a preference right, in his discretion, to purchase the same for or in behalf of any other Indian or Indians by meeting the highest bid otherwise offered therefor.
The preference right of the Secretary to purchase shall be considered as waived where notice of the pendency of sale is given in writing to the Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes for at least ten days prior to the date of sale and the Secretary does not within that time exercise the preferential right to purchase.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1947—Act Aug. 4, 1947, provided for waiver of preference by failure to purchase after notice.
Cross References
Inapplicability of section to Osage County, Oklahoma, see section 508 of this title.