Notice2025-11150

Notice of Intended Repatriation: Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, CO

Primary source

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Published
June 17, 2025

Issuing agencies

Interior DepartmentNational Park Service

Abstract

In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave intends to repatriate a certain cultural item that meets the definition of an object of cultural patrimony and that has a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice.

Full Text

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 115 (Tuesday, June 17, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 115 (Tuesday, June 17, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Page 25632]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-11150]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0040364; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intended Repatriation: Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, 
Golden, CO

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 Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave intends to 
repatriate a certain cultural item that meets the definition of an 
object of cultural patrimony and that has a cultural affiliation with 
the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural item in this notice may occur on or 
after July 17, 2025.

ADDRESSES: Send additional, written requests for repatriation of the 
cultural item in this notice to Rebecca Jacobs, Buffalo Bill Museum and 
Grave, 987 \1/2\ Lookout Mountain Road, Golden, CO 80401, email 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#aedccbcccbcdcdcf80c4cfcdc1ccddeecacbc0d8cbdcc9c1d880c1dcc9"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="186a7d7a7d7b7b793672797b777a6b587c7d766e7d6a7f776e36776a7f">[email&#160;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 
Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, and additional information on the 
determinations in this notice, including the results of consultation, 
can be found in the summary or related records. The National Park 
Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Abstract of Information Available

    A total of one cultural item has been requested for repatriation. 
The one object of cultural patrimony is a double ball (T2023.1.1). This 
double ball was recently donated to the museum by a relative of 
Reverend George Allen Beecher. Beecher was a bishop who developed a 
friendship with William F. ``Buffalo Bill'' Cody and Cody's family 
including Johnny Baker, Cody's foster son, who later became, along with 
his wife, Olive Baker, founder of the museum. Beecher spent most of his 
life in Nebraska working in a religious capacity. He worked at the Fort 
Sidney Mission in Sidney, Nebraska; the Church of Our Survivors in 
North Platte, Nebraska; St. Luke's Church in Kearney, Nebraska; he 
became Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Omaha, Nebraska; and then became 
Bishop of the Missionary District of Western Nebraska. According to his 
autobiography, through his time as a religious leader, he developed 
relationships with people he referred to as Sioux. A close friend of 
Cody, he attended Buffalo Bill's Wild West as a guest in 1901 and 
traveled with the show for the 1905 season where he interacted with the 
Lakota performers employed with the show. To the current knowledge of 
museum staff there is no known presence of any potentially hazardous 
substances used to treat the double ball.

Determinations

    The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave has determined that:
    <bullet> The one object of cultural patrimony described in this 
notice has ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance 
central to the Native American group, including any constituent sub-
group (such as a band, clan, lineage, ceremonial society, or other 
subdivision), according to the Native American traditional knowledge of 
an Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
    <bullet> There is a reasonable connection between the cultural item 
described in this notice and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the 
Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana.

Requests for Repatriation

    Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural item 
in this notice must be sent to the authorized representative identified 
in this notice under 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 item in this notice to a requestor may 
occur on or after July 17, 2025. If competing requests for repatriation 
are received, the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave must determine the most 
appropriate requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for joint 
repatriation of the cultural item are considered a single request and 
not competing requests. The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave is 
responsible for sending a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribes and 
Native Hawaiian organizations identified in this notice and to any 
other consulting parties.
    Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 
25 U.S.C. 3004 and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.9.

    Dated: June 6, 2025.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2025-11150 Filed 6-16-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P


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Indexed from Federal Register on June 17, 2025.

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