Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, CA, 60236-60237 [2023-18818]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 168 (Thursday, August 31, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60236-60237]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[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 [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 
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:
     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.
     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.
     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]
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