Notice2023-18818
Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, CA
Primary source
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Published
August 31, 2023
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentNational Park Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Autry Museum of the American West intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects and a certain cultural item that meets the definition of a sacred object, and that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The cultural items were removed from San Luis Obispo County, CA.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 168 (Thursday, August 31, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 168 (Thursday, August 31, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60236-60237]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-18818]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0036489; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Autry Museum of
the American West, Los Angeles, CA
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Autry Museum of the American West
intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet the definition
of unassociated funerary objects and a certain cultural item that meets
the definition of a sacred object, and that have a cultural affiliation
with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice.
The cultural items were removed from San Luis Obispo County, CA.
DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on
or after October 2, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Karimah Richardson, M.Phil., RPA, Associate Curator of
Anthropology and Repatriation Supervisor, Autry Museum of the American
West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027, telephone (323)
495-4203, email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#5c372e353f343d2e382f33321c2834393d29282e2572332e3b"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="2348514a404b425147504c4d63574b46425657515a0d4c5144">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is published as part of the
National Park Service's administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA.
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the
Autry Museum of the American West. The National Park Service is not
responsible for the determinations in this notice. Additional
information on the determinations in this notice, including the results
of consultation, can be found in the summary or related records held by
the Autry Museum of the American West.
Description
In 1896, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian (now part of
the Autry Museum of the American West) purchased a collection from the
museum's first curator, Dr. Frank M. Palmer. Sometime between 1877 and
1896, Palmer collected cultural items from burials at multiple, unknown
sites along the coast of San Luis Obispo County, CA. The coast of San
Luis Obispo County is within the aboriginal territory of the Chumash
and Salinan people. The Autry Museum does not have possession or
control of any
[[Page 60237]]
human remains associated with these items. Based on museum records, the
Autry Museum has control of 1,510 unassociated funerary objects that
Palmer removed from burials. Of this number, 1,476 have been located
and 34 currently are missing. The 1,476 unassociated funerary objects
are one basket water bottle lined with asphaltum, 10 bird bone beads,
one bone tube with traces of asphaltum, one vegetal carved bowl (made
from either wood, seed, or gourd), 58 brass and bronze buttons, one
brass bell, one brass button, one brass hilt, two charms made from
spiral fossils, one charm made from a concretion, one steatite gorget,
one historic glass bottle, two chert knives, one neck of basket water
bottle asphaltum lined, two cakes of red ochre, one wooden paint cup,
one fish vertebral bone paint pot, two pestles, four shell beads made
from scallops, one oyster shell spoon, one soap root brush, one
steatite bowl, one pestle with ochre staining, one lot consisting of
approximately 227 barrel-shaped Olivella and clamshell beads (some of
them burned), and 1,379 glass beads. The 34 currently missing
unassociated funerary objects are one arrow polisher, one basket
bottom, one breast ornament, one burial mat, one carved wood, one
charm, six cooking pots, one cooking stone, one disc, one doll body,
one fishing line, one head dress, one historic bottle, one knife, one
medicine stone, three mortars, two necklaces, one onyx pendant, one
pendant, two pestles, two shell spoons, one spear head, one whistle,
and one lot consisting of basketry fragments, beads, and bone beads.
In 1935, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian (now the Autry
Museum of the American West) was gifted a cultural item by Mr. Clifford
Park Baldwin, who worked for the Southwest Museum from 1933 to 1937, in
various capacities. Sometime between 1911 and 1935, Mr. Baldwin
collected the item from Morro Bay in San Luis Obispo County, CA. Morro
Bay is within the aboriginal territory of the Chumash people and
Salinan people. During consultation with tribal representatives from
the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of the Sant Ynez
Reservation, California, the item was identified as an unassociated
funerary object. The one unassociated funerary is a faunal bone
hairpin.
In 1939, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian (now the Autry
Museum of the American West) was gifted a cultural item by Mr. Willy
Stahl, who worked for the Southwest Museum from 1937 to 1948. Mr. Stahl
collected the item from Sandspit Beach, near Santa Maria in Santa Maria
Valley, CA. Since 1965, the beach has been part of Montana de Oro State
Park. Santa Maria Valley is within the aboriginal territory of the
Chumash and Salinan people. During consultation with tribal
representatives from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of
the Sant Ynez Reservation, California, the item was identified as an
unassociated funerary object. The one unassociated funerary is a faunal
bone hairpin fragment.
In 1944, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian (now the Autry
Museum of the American West) was gifted a cultural item by Mr. Franklin
R. Johnston, an archeologist. Sometime between 1930 and 1944
(inclusive), Johnston collected the item, a small pestle, at his
campsite on Pismo Beach, in San Luis Obispo County, CA. Pismo Beach is
within the aboriginal territory of the Chumash and Salinan people.
During consultation with tribal representatives from the Santa Ynez
Band of Chumash Mission Indians of the Sant Ynez Reservation,
California, the pestle was identified as a ceremonial object. The
Chumash, as well as other southern Californian Indians within the area
view small pestles like this one as sacred objects. The one sacred
object is a pestle.
Cultural Affiliation
The cultural items in this notice are connected to one or more
identifiable earlier groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures. There is a
relationship of shared group identity between the identifiable earlier
groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures and one or more Indian Tribes or
Native Hawaiian organizations. The following types of information were
used to reasonably trace the relationship: archeological, geographical,
oral traditional, and historical.
Determinations
Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian
organizations, the Autry Museum of the American West has determined
that:
<bullet> The 1,512 cultural items described above are reasonably
believed to have been placed with or near individual human remains at
the time of death or later as part of the death rite or ceremony and
are believed, by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed
from a specific burial site of a Native American individual.
<bullet> The one cultural item described above is a specific
ceremonial object needed by traditional Native American religious
leaders for the practice of traditional Native American religions by
their present-day adherents.
<bullet> There is a relationship of shared group identity that can
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Santa Ynez Band
of Chumash Mission Indians of the Sant Ynez Reservation, California.
Requests for Repatriation
Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items
in this notice must be sent to the Responsible Official identified in
ADDRESSES. Requests for repatriation may be submitted by any lineal
descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization not
identified in this notice who shows, by a preponderance of the
evidence, that the requestor is a lineal descendant or a culturally
affiliated Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice to a requestor
may occur on or after October 2, 2023. If competing requests for
repatriation are received, the Autry Museum of the American West must
determine the most appropriate requestor prior to repatriation.
Requests for joint repatriation of the cultural items are considered a
single request and not competing requests. The Autry Museum of the
American West is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to the
Indian Tribe identified in this notice.
Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act,
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.8, 10.10,
and 10.14.
Dated: August 23, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-18818 Filed 8-30-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P
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