---
kind: "section"
citation: "43 U.S.C. § 868"
title: "43"
title_heading: "Public Lands"
number: "868"
heading: "Representation of Indian claimants in suits to determine right to school lands"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/43/868"
units:
  - "Chapter 20 — Reservations and Grants to States for Public Purposes"
---

# §868. Representation of Indian claimants in suits to determine right to school lands


In any suit instituted in the Supreme Court of the United States to determine the right of a [State](/usc/43/31b.md?p=8) to what are commonly known as school lands within any Indian Reservation or any Indian cession where an Indian tribe claims any right to or interest in the lands in controversy, or in the disposition thereof by the United States, the right of such [State](/usc/43/31b.md?p=8) may be fully tested and determined without making the Indian tribe, or any portion thereof, a party to the suit if the [Secretary](/usc/43/31b.md?p=7) of the Interior is made a party thereto; and the duty of representing and defending the right or interest of the Indian tribe, or any portion thereof, in the matter shall devolve upon the Attorney General upon the request of such [Secretary](/usc/43/31b.md?p=7).


## Source credit

(Mar. 2, 1901, ch. 808, 31 Stat. 950.)