Notice2025-14801
Notice of Intended Repatriation: Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, CA
Primary source
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Published
August 5, 2025
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 (Southwest Museum Collection) intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, and/or objects of cultural patrimony and that have 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 148 (Tuesday, August 5, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 148 (Tuesday, August 5, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37560-37561]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-14801]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[N6401; NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0040773; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Intended Repatriation: 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
(Southwest Museum Collection) intends to repatriate certain cultural
items that meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects, sacred
objects, and/or objects of cultural patrimony and that have a cultural
affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in
this notice.
DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on
or after September 4, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Send additional, written requests for repatriation of the
cultural items in this notice to 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, email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#600b12090308011204130f0e2014080501151412194e0f1207"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="49223b202a21283b2d3a2627093d212c283c3d3b3067263b2e">[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, 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 20 lots of cultural items have been requested for
repatriation. The 20 unassociated funerary objects are two awls, one
blade fragment, two stone points, 10 lots of shell ornaments, one arrow
shaft straightener, one lot of soil, one unmodified faunal bone, and
two lots of unmodified shell. In 1912 and 1913, Mrs. Ina Sizer Cassidy
and her husband Mr. Gerald Cassidy (491.G) collected cultural items
from various unknown sites on Anacapa Island, Channel Island, in
Ventura County, CA, including their own campsite. Some objects were
tagged as being collected from burials while others were classified as
funerary objects through consultation. The museum does not have the
physical human remains that were found with the cultural items. The
Southwest Museum (now part of the Autry Museum of the American West)
purchased the cultural items from the Mr. and Mrs. Cassidy in 1940.
A total of two cultural items have been requested for repatriation.
The two unassociated funerary objects is two pestles. In the summer of
1937, Mr. Charles S. Thompson (690.G) collected cultural items from
Santa Rosa Creek, in San Luis Obispo County, CA. Mr. Thompson donated
the cultural items to the Southwest Museum (now part of the Autry
Museum of the American West) in 1937.
A total of five cultural items have been requested for
repatriation. The five unassociated funerary objects is one basket
hopper-mortar, one pestle fragment, one stone anvil and two mano
fragments. At an unknown date(s), Mr. Charles Thompson (690.G)
collected cultural items from San Luis Obispo County. Only one object
was collected from Cambria Pines, while the items were collected from
unknown locations. Mr. Thompson donated the cultural items to the
Southwest Museum (now part of the Autry Museum of the American West) in
1935.
A total of one cultural item has been requested for repatriation.
The one unassociated funerary object is one wedge. The cultural item
was collected by the Citizens Committee of Parks, Playgrounds, and
Beaches (450.G) sometime between 1927 and 1928 at an unknown site on
San Miguel Island, Channel Islands, Santa Barbara County, CA. The
executive secretary of the division, Mr. Hugh R. Pomeroy, donated the
cultural item to the Southwest Museum (now part of the Autry Museum of
the American West) in 1928.
A total of three cultural items have been requested for
repatriation. The three unassociated funerary objects are
[[Page 37561]]
three crescent knives. Between 1877 and 1895, Dr. Frank M. Palmer
(2.P), collected cultural items from unknown sites on Santa Cruz
Island, Channel Islands, in Santa Barbara County, CA. In 1895, the
Southwest Museum purchased the personal collection of Dr. Palmer, their
first museum curator.
A total of 11 cultural items have been requested for repatriation.
The 11 unassociated funerary objects are 10 crescent knives and one
abalone bone pry. Between 1877 and 1895, Dr. Frank M. Palmer (2.P),
collected cultural items from unknown sites on Santa Rosa Island,
Channel Islands, in Santa Barbara County, CA. In 1895, the Southwest
Museum purchased the personal collection of Dr. Palmer, their first
museum curator.
A total of one cultural item has been requested for repatriation.
The one unassociated funerary object is one pestle. In the late 1870s,
Mr. James Wesley Calkin (311.G) collected a cultural item from an
unknown location within Santa Barbara County, CA. Mr. Calkin's daughter
gifted the collection to the Southwest Museum in 1923.
A total of one cultural item has been requested for repatriation.
The one unassociated funerary object is one chopper. At an unknown
date, an unknown collector collected the cultural item (18.C.441) from
an unknown site in Santa Barbara County, CA. The cultural item was
found in collections without an object number. It is unknown when the
object came into the Southwest Museum collection or by whom.
A total of four cultural items have been requested for
repatriation. The four unassociated funerary objects are two burial
markers and two pries. In July 1933, Mr. Howard Arden Edwards (33.F),
former staff member, collected cultural items from either Green Harbor
or Beecher's Bay on Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands, Santa Barbara
County, CA. Mr. Edwards went to the island with the sponsorship of the
Southwest Museum.
A total of 39 lots of cultural items have been requested for
repatriation. The 39 lots of unassociated funerary objects are one lot
of basketry impressions, five lots of blades, one burin, one lot of
cores, one lot of debitage, one disk, one lot of crescent knives, two
lots of files, five lots of flakes, one lot of gouges, two lots of
knives, one lot of modified faunal bone fragments, one lot of modified
fossilized sea urchin spines, one modified stone fragment, one obsidian
nodule, one paint pestle, one lot of preforms, one lot of pestles, two
lots of point preforms, one lot of polishers, one whale bone rod
fragment, three lots of scrapers, one lot of smoothers, one uniface,
and two lots of wedge fragments. The cultural items were found in
collections without object numbers a box labeled ``Channel Islands,
Santa Barbara County''. The items most likely were collected before
1906 and came into the Southwest Museum in the late 1890 and early
1900s. Possible collectors are Dr. Frank M. Palmer, Mr. Arthur B.
Chappelle, Mr. William Henry Burnham, Dr. Hector Alliot, Rev. Stephen
Bowers, Mr. DeMoss Bowers and or the Southwest Museum Expeditions to
the Channel Islands.
A total of one sacred object has been requested for repatriation.
The one sacred object is a toloache mortar. On an unknown year, an
unknown collector collected a toloache mortar from a road near Santa
Inez in Santa Barbara County, CA. The item was found during road
excavation. Mr. Fred McKinney donated the cultural item to the
Southwest Museum in 1958.
Determinations
The Autry Museum of the American West has determined that:
<bullet> The 87 lots of unassociated funerary objects described
above are reasonably believed to have been placed intentionally with or
near individual human remains, and are connected, either 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 an individual or individuals with cultural
affiliation to an Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
<bullet> The one sacred object described in this notice are
specific ceremonial objects needed by a traditional Native American
religious leader for present-day adherents to practice traditional
Native American religion, according to the Native American traditional
knowledge of a lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian
organization.
<bullet> There is a reasonable connection between the cultural
items described in this notice and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash
Mission Indians of the Santa Ynez Reservation, California.
Requests for Repatriation
Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items
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 items in this notice to a requestor
may occur on or after September 4, 2025. 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 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: July 28, 2025.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2025-14801 Filed 8-4-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P
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