Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Museum of Us, San Diego, CA, 29946 [2023-09764]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 89 (Tuesday, May 9, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Page 29946]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-09764]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035802; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Museum of Us, San 
Diego, 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 Museum of Us intends to repatriate 
certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated 
funerary objects and that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian 
Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The cultural 
items were removed from Sacramento County, CA.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after June 8, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Carmen Mosley, NAGPRA Repatriation Manager, Museum of Us, 
1350 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101, telephone (619) 239-
2001 Ext. 42, 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 
Museum of Us. 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 Museum of 
Us.

Description

    Between 1930 and 1936, 190 cultural items were removed from Wamser 
Mound (CV-10; CA-SAC-157) in Sacramento County, CA, by Henry Gibbs, a 
private collector and looter. In 1937, Paul A. Walker purchased Gibbs' 
Central Valley, California archeological collection. Walker was an 
amateur archeologist and collector who worked by himself and with other 
amateur archeologists, and in collaboration with the University of 
California and Sacramento Junior College. Over the course of his life, 
Walker amassed an extensive archeological collection from California's 
Central Valley and smaller collections from Northern and Southern 
California, and outside of California. In 1968, Walker's private 
archeological collection was acquired by the San Diego Museum of Man 
(now Museum of Us) through a purchase/donation transaction with 
Walker's widow, Bessie B. Walker. The 190 unassociated funerary objects 
are 12 strings of Olivella beads, three strings of clam shell beads, 21 
Haliotis pendants, 128 Haliotis ornaments, seven miscellaneous shell 
ornaments, two faunal teeth, 10 faunal bone fragments, one stone bead, 
one charmstone fragment, three perforated slate discs, one faunal bone 
bead, and one bipointed faunal bone artifact.

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, 
and historical.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the Museum of Us has determined that:
     The 190 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 the specific burial sites of Native American individuals.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Wilton 
Rancheria, 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 June 8, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the Museum of Us 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 Museum of Us 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: May 3, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-09764 Filed 5-8-23; 8:45 am]
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