Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK, 28608 [2023-09474]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 86 (Thursday, May 4, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Page 28608]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-09474]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035771; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Gilcrease Museum, 
Tulsa, OK

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 Gilcrease Museum intends to repatriate 
certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated 
funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony and 
that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native 
Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The cultural items were removed 
from unknown locations.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after June 5, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Laura Bryant, Gilcrease Museum, 800 S. Tucker Drive, Tulsa, 
OK 74104, telephone (918) 596-2747, email [email protected].

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 
Gilcrease Museum. 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 Gilcrease 
Museum.

Description

    Three cultural items were removed from unknown locations. Museum 
records do not provide details regarding the original acquisition of 
these items, except to note that two of them were donated to the 
Gilcrease Museum by different collectors who primarily collected in the 
latter half of the 20th century, and that one of them was purchased by 
Thomas Gilcrease in 1950 from Emil Lenders, an artist who traveled 
around the country at the turn of the 20th century. The three sacred 
objects and objects of cultural patrimony are pipe bags.
    Six cultural items were removed from unknown locations. Museum 
records do not provide details regarding the original acquisition of 
these items, except to note that six of them were donated to the 
Gilcrease Museum by a collector who primarily collected in the latter 
half of the 20th century. The six unassociated funerary objects are 
pipe bags.

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: anthropological, historical, 
and oral traditional.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the Gilcrease Museum has determined that:
     Six of the 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.
     Three of the cultural items described above both are 
specific ceremonial objects needed by traditional Native American 
religious leaders for the practice of traditional Native American 
religions by their present-day adherents and have ongoing historical, 
traditional, or cultural importance central to the Native American 
group or culture itself, rather than property owned by an individual.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Cheyenne and 
Arapaho Tribes, Oklahoma.

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 June 5, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the Gilcrease Museum 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 Gilcrease Museum 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, Sec.  
10.10, and Sec.  10.14.

    Dated: April 25, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-09474 Filed 5-3-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P