N.Y. Indian Law § 71: Exclusion of villages from reservations; lease of lands therein; certification of copies of leases granted by the Seneca nation of Indian...

§ 71. Exclusion of villages from reservations; lease of lands therein;

certification of copies of leases granted by the Seneca nation of

Indians and recording thereof. Those parts of the Allegany reservation

included in the villages of Vandalia, Carrollton, Great Valley,

Salamanca, West Salamanca and Red House, as surveyed, located and

established pursuant to an act of congress approved February nineteenth,

eighteen hundred and seventy-five, have been constituted parts of the

several towns within which they are located, and all the general laws of

the state are extended over and apply to the same; except that this

section shall not authorize the taxation of any Indian or the property

of any Indian, not a citizen of the United States. Lands in such

villages held under lease from the Seneca nation of Indians shall be for

all purposes considered a freehold estate, and the right of dower and

tenancy by the courtesy shall attach thereto, and such lands, upon the

intestacy of the holder, shall descend the same as a freehold of

inheritance, except that solely for the purpose of taxation by the

Salamanca Indian lease authority, the estate of a lessee shall be

considered a chattel real. But the rights of the Indians in such leases

shall descend as provided by the laws of the Seneca nation of Indians.

When the original lease of any such lands already granted by the Seneca

nation of Indians, pursuant to an act of Congress, and recorded in the

books of Seneca national Indian leases kept by the clerk of said nation,

or his successors or assigns in office, shall have been lost or

destroyed without the same having been recorded in the office of the

clerk of the county of Cattaraugus, the owner of such lease, or any

person interested in the lands therein described, may apply to the clerk

of said nation for a certified copy of such record of the same, and upon

the payment of the fees therefor, it shall be the duty of said clerk to

furnish such owner with a certified copy of said lease. Upon the

presentation of a copy of any such lease, certified as aforesaid, to the

clerk of Cattaraugus county, it shall be the duty of said clerk to

record the same in the books provided in his office for the record of

such Indian leases, upon the payment of the fees for recording the same.

Such copy of a lease certified as aforesaid shall be presumptive

evidence of the facts set forth therein and shall be received in

evidence on the trial of any action or proceeding in all the courts of

this state. The record of such a copy of a lease certified as aforesaid

in the office of the clerk of the county of Cattaraugus shall have the

same force and effect as the record of the original lease, had it been

recorded. The said clerk shall receive for certifying the same the sum

of one dollar and for making a copy of said lease the sum of twenty-five

cents per folio, which fees shall belong to the said clerk.