(a) "Director" means the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Federal Building, Muskogee, Oklahoma, or his authorized representative. (b) "Tribe" means the Cherokee Nation or Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. (c) "Enrollee" means a person whose name appears on the rolls of the Cherokee Nation which rolls were closed and made final as of March 4, 1907, pursuant to the Act of April 26, 1906, and subsequent additions thereto. (d) "Distribute" means to apportion or divide into shares the proportional shares of deceased heirs or legatees. (e) "Minor" means any person under twenty-one years of age. (f) "Act" means the Act of Congress approved October 9, 1962. [27 F.R. 10321, Oct. 23, 1962, as amended at 28 F.R. 1253, Feb. 8, 1963] § 110.5 Shares of deceased enrollees. (a) The Director is authorized to pay a share due a deceased enrollee or a proportional share due a deceased heir or legatee to his heirs or legatees as determined by the Director from a proof of death and inheritance satisfactory to the Director and dated and filed after the date of the Act. (b) All determinations of heirs or legatees shall be made by the Director under the laws of succession and testacy of the state of residence of the decedent on the date of his death and the Director's findings and determinations shall be final and conclusive. (c) The filing of a request within 3 years from the date of the Act, signed by an heir or legatee, for payment of a share due a named deceased enrollee shall be considered as a claim filed for and on behalf of all heirs and legatees and shall be construed to comply with the three-year limitation on the filing of claims imposed by section 3(a) of the Act. § 110.6 Payment of shares of minors. The Director shall pay a share or a proportional share payable to a minor in accordance with procedures as the Director determines will adequately protect the interests of such persons. § 110.7 Assignment of shares. No part of any of the funds which may be distributed shall be subject to any lien, debt, or claim of any nature whatsoever against the Tribe or individual Indians, except delinquent debts owed by the Tribe to the United States, or owed by individual Indians to the Tribe or to the United States. § 110.8 Power of attorney. Powers of attorney will not be recognized, nor will any order given to another person by anyone entitled to share in the payment be honored. § 110.9 Shares of deceased heirs. The Director shall not distribute proportional shares of deceased heirs or legatees amounting to $10 or less and he shall not pay an inherited share amounting to $5 or less. The unpaid and undistributed shares shall revert to the Tribe. § 110.10 Disposition of unclaimed and unpaid shares. All per capita shares of living enrollees and proportional shares of deceased enrollees for which a claim has not been filed within 3 years from the date of approval of the Act, as provided by the Act and in § 110.5, shall revert to the Tribe. The Director shall keep accurate records of all monies reverting to the Tribe. SUBCHAPTERS K-O-LANDS, SURFACE ESTATES AND RESOURCES SUBCHAPTER K-PATENTS, ALLOTMENTS AND SALES PART 120-LAND RECORDS AND § 120.1 TITLE DOCUMENTS Maintenance of land records and title documents. The office(s) for the maintenance of (R.S. 161, 5 U.S.C. 22) [30 F.R. 11676, Sept. MORTGAGES AND DEEDS OF TRUST TO SECURE LOANS TO INDIANS 121.61 Approval of mortgages and deeds of trust. AUTHORITY: The provisions of this Part 121 issued under R.S. 161; 5 U.S.C. 22. Interpret or apply sec. 7, 32 Stat. 275, 34 Stat. 1018, sec. 1, 35 Stat. 444, sec. 1, 2, 36 Stat. 855, as amended, 856, as amended, sec. 17, 40 Stat. 579, 62 Stat. 236, sec. 2, 40 Stat. 606, 69 Stat. 666; 25 U.S.C. 379, 405, 404, 372, 373, 483, 355, unless otherwise noted. CROSS REFERENCES: For further regulations pertaining to the sale of irrigable lands, see Parts 129, 128 and § 211.4 of this chapter. For Indian money regulations, see Parts 104, 101, 107, 105, and 102 of this chapter. For regulations pertaining to the determination of heirs and approval of wills, see Part 15 and §§ 11.30-11.32C of this chapter. § 121.2 Issuance of patents in fee. (a) The Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, and pursuant to the Acts of February 8, 1887, as amended (24 Stat. 388, as amended; 25 U.S.C. 349); June 25, 1910, as amended (36 Stat. 855, as amended; 25 U.S.C. 372); and May 14, 1948 (62 Stat. 236; 25 U.S.C. 483), and pursuant to other authorizing Acts, issue patents in fee to Indians applying therefor in accordance with § 121.1. A patent in fee will be issued pursuant to this paragraph if it is determined that the applicant is competent and capable of managing his or her own affairs. At the time of the issuance of a patent in fee, an inventory of the estate covered thereby shall be delivered to the patentee. If an application is denied, the applicant shall be so notified in writing. (b) The Secretary will, pursuant to the act of March 1, 1907 (34 Stat. 1015, 1034), issue a patent in fee to any adult mixed-blood Indian owning land within the White Earth Reservation in the State of Minnesota upon application being made by such Indian, and without regard to the applicant's competency and ability to manage his or her own affairs. (c) Whenever the Secretary determines that land, or any interest therein, held in trust for an Indian by the United States, has been acquired through inheritance or devise by (1) a non-Indian or (2) an alien Indian or an Indian who has become an alien subsequent to the time of such acquisition, the Secretary may issue a patent in fee for the land or interest therein to such non-Indian or alien Indian, without regard to such person's competency and ability to manage his or her own affairs, and regardless of whether such person has applied for a patent in fee. [22 F.R. 10559, Dec. 24, 1957, as amended at 24 F.R. 7100, Sept. 2, 1959] § 121.2a Information regarding status of applications for patents in fee. The status of applications by Indians for patents in fee shall be disclosed to employees of the Department whose duties require that such information be disclosed to them and to the applicant, or his attorney, upon request. This information will also be made available to members of Congress who present requests therefor from the applicant. Such information will be made available to all other persons, upon request, fifteen (15) days after the fee patent has been issued by the Bureau of Land Management, or after the application has been rejected and the applicant notified, if such be the case. [25 F.R. 7264, July 30, 1960] CERTIFICATES OF COMPETENCY SOURCE: §§ 121.3 to 121.7 appear at 22 F.R. 10559, Dec. 24, 1957. § 121.3 Applications for certificates of competency. Applications on Form 5-105, modified for certificates of competency authorized by section 1 of the act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 855, 48 Stat. 647; 25 U.S.C. 372), shall be filed with the Indian superintendent having jurisdiction over the land from which the allottee or heirs seek to have all restrictions removed. When the land is not located within the territorial limits of an Indian reservation the allottee or heirs may petition the most convenient superintendent or other officer in charge of an Indian agency or Indian tribe or such other public officer of the United States as may be designated by the Secretary of the Interior, who shall take like action as if the lands were within the territorial limits of an Indian reservation. § 121.4 Superintendent's report on certificates of competency. Reports on application for certificates of competency should be on Form 5-110f and should be accompanied by the recommendation of the tribal council. The issuance of a certificate of competency is discretionary with the Secretary of the Interior. Such a certificate will not be issued unless it can be affirmatively shown that its issuance will not affect unfavorably the consolidation and use by the Indians of restricted Indian lands. The provisions of the act of June 25, 1910, apply only to Indians or their heirs to whom a patent in fee containing restrictions on alienation has been issued. § 121.5 Certificates of competency to certain Osage adults. Applications for certificates of competency by adult members of the Osage Tribe of one-half or more Indian blood shall be on the form1 prescribed by the 1 Copies of the form may be obtained from the Superintendent of the Osage Indian Agency, Pawhuska, Okla. |