[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 207 (Friday, October 25, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65595-65596]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-27248]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: UCLA Fowler Museum 
of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, Los 
Angeles, CA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is hereby given in accordance with the Native American 
Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3005, Sec. 
7, of the intent to repatriate cultural items in the possession of the 
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los 
Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, that meet the definition of

[[Page 65596]]

``unassociated funerary objects'' under 25 U.S.C. 3001.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003, Sec. 5 
(d)(3). The determinations within this notice are the sole 
responsibility of the museum, institution, or Federal agency that has 
control of these cultural items. The National Park Service is not 
responsible for the determinations within this notice.
    In 1965, 33 unassociated funerary objects were removed from the 
Rancho site (CA-RIV-364), a documented cremation and burial site, 
Riverside County, CA, by Dr. Joseph L. Chartkoff. The objects are 21 
Tizon Brown pottery sherds, 1 lathe-turned ink bottle, 3 glass 
fragments, 1 basalt core, 1 unmodified basalt flake, 1 unmodified stone 
flake, 1 brass button, 1 burned deer bone, 1 porcelain plate fragment, 
and 2 unmodified quartz flakes. Dr. Chartkoff donated these cultural 
items to the University of California, Los Angeles the same year.
    The Rancho site (CA-RIV-364) is close to the present-day Pechanga 
Reservation, in the valley of Temecula Creek. Geographical location and 
archeological and oral traditional evidence support the association of 
this site with precontact and historic village sites within the 
territory of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the 
Pechanga Reservation, California. The site is well known, by both oral 
tradition and archeological documentation, to be a precontact and 
postcontact cremation and burial site. Members of the Pechanga Band of 
Luiseno Indians Cultural Committee identified the artifacts collected 
there as part of the traditional Luiseno cremation and memorial 
offering rites. According to Raymond Basquez, Chairperson of the tribal 
Cultural Resources Department, Elder, and traditional religious leader, 
when traditional cremation practices gave way after contact to 
inhumation, Luiseno peoples' personal possessions often were collected, 
burned, and placed at traditional cremation/cemetery areas. Some 
artifacts, such as the plate fragment, broken glass, lathe-turned 
inkbottle, and metal button, appear to date to the Spanish or Mexican 
period (late 1700s-early 1800s) in California. The Tizon Brown pottery 
sherds are consistent with a Late Prehistoric and historic age.
    Officials of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, Sec. 2 (3)(B), the 33 
objects listed 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 
Native American individuals. Officials of the UCLA Fowler Museum of 
Cultural History also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, 
Sec. 2 (2), there is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between these unassociated funerary objects and 
the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pechanga 
Reservation, California.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with these unassociated funerary objects 
should contact Diana Wilson, UCLA NAGPRA Coordinator, Office of the 
Vice Chancellor, Research, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 
951405, Los Angeles, California 90095-1405, telephone (310) 825-1864, 
before November 25, 2002. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary 
objects to the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pechanga 
Reservation, California may begin after that date if no additional 
claimants come forward.
    Officials of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History are 
responsible for notifying officials of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno 
Mission Indians of the Pechanga Reservation, California that this 
notice has been published.

    Dated: September 25, 2002
Robert Stearns,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 02-27248 Filed 10-24-02; 8:45 am]
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