Legal Definitions - headright

Definition: Headright is a legal term used in American Indian law. It refers to a tribe member's right to a share of income from a tribal trust fund. This trust fund is created under the Allotment Act of 1906 and is mainly funded by mineral royalties from land owned or previously owned by the tribe member's tribe.

Example: Let's say that a Native American tribe owns a piece of land that has valuable minerals underneath it. The tribe decides to lease the land to a mining company to extract the minerals. As part of the lease agreement, the mining company agrees to pay the tribe a percentage of the profits from the minerals. This money goes into a trust fund, and each tribe member has a headright to a portion of the income from that fund.

Explanation: The example illustrates how headright works in practice. The tribe member's right to a share of the income is based on their membership in the tribe. The more members a tribe has, the smaller each member's share will be. Headright is a way for tribes to distribute income from their resources fairly among their members.