I am getting crosseyed from reading this stuff, off to bed now....................................thud.
United States v. Beggerly No. 97-731 (1998 )
The news media has kept this one quiet. This has to do with land in Louisiana. Beggerly applied for a copy of the land patent, to Horn Island he had bought at a tax sale from the state of Louisiana in 1950. He paid $51.20 for 625-acre tract. The B.L.M. did not come forth with the Land Patent to the property. The court ruled against Beggerly. Later Beggerly pressed the issue of the land patent. It was finally found. He opened the case, presented the patent to the court. the first case was over ruled in his favor. The patent was issued prior to state hood. The State acquired NO jurisdiction over the land at the time the Territory became a state. The treaty was in place. Treaties prevail. Now irony of this story is that the state of Louisiana had laid a, unlawful tax on the land, The land patent is a contract between the patentee and the U.S. "Article 1 sec 10 shall pas no Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts"
So the short of the story is, if an heir to the person who lost the land to the State of Louisiana comes forward and files ejectment action in federal court Mr. Beggerly could lose the island.
http://www.landrights.com/toppage1.htm