Federal · Title 16 — Conservation

16 U.S.C. § 153: Existing laws unaffected by admission of Oklahoma; rights and jurisdiction of United States; indemnity school lands

Civil

What this law says, in plain English

This statute preserves federal authority over certain reserved lands in Oklahoma, including national parks and the Sulphur Springs Reservation, while permitting state criminal and civil process service within those areas.

Read the full statutory text
Nothing in the Act of June 16, 1906 , chapter 3335, Thirty-fourth Statutes, page 267, entitled, “An Act to enable the people of Oklahoma and of the Indian Territory to form a constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States * * *”, shall repeal or affect any Act of Congress relating to the Sulphur Springs Reservation as defined on June 16, 1906 , or as may be thereafter defined or extended, or the power of the United States over it or any other lands embraced in the State hereafter set aside by Congress as a national park, game preserve, or for the preservation of objects of archaeological or ethnological interest; and nothing contained in said Act shall interfere with the rights and ownership of the United States in any land hereafter set aside by Congress as national park, game preserve, or other reservation, or in the said Sulphur Springs Reservation, as it was on June 16, 1906 , or may be defined or extended by law; but exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, shall be exercised by the United States, which shall have exclusive control and jurisdiction over the same; but nothing in this section contained shall be construed to prevent the service within said Sulphur Springs Reservation or national parks, game preserves, and other reservations hereafter established by law, of civil and criminal processes lawfully issued by the authority of said State, and said State shall not be entitled to select indemnity school lands for the thirteenth, sixteenth, thirty-third, and thirty-sixth sections that may be embraced within the metes and bounds of the national park, game preserve, and other reservation or the said Sulphur Springs Reservation, as defined on June 16, 1906 , or may be thereafter defined.

Verify at the official source: Federal legislative text

Facing this? Know exactly what happens next.

MOFRD turns this code section into your situation: the deadlines that apply to you, the forms your county uses, and the resolution paths people in your position actually take. Free for 3 days — no card required.

This page is legal information, not legal advice. Code text is sourced from official publications and may lag amendments — always confirm at the official source linked above. Plain-English summaries and relationship data are AI-derived and reviewed on an ongoing basis; verify with a licensed attorney before acting.