[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 117 (Tuesday, June 17, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Page 34318]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-13569]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: Raymond M. Alf Museum of 
Paleontology, Claremont, CA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the 
completion of an inventory of human remains in the control of the 
Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, Claremont, CA. The human remains 
were removed from Kern County, CA.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003 (d)(3). 
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the Native 
American human remains. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Raymond 
M. Alf Museum of Paleontology professional staff and University of 
California Los Angeles professional staff member Archeologist Gail 
Kennedy, in consultation with representatives of the Santa Rosa Indian 
Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California (Tachi Yokut Tribe).
    In 1968-1969, human remains representing a minimum of one 
individual were removed from Kern Valley, Bull Run Creek along the west 
bank of the Kern River and directly west of the River Kern community, 
or six miles north of Kernville, Kern County, CA, in an attempt to 
protect the bones from erosion. No known individual was identified. No 
associated funerary objects are present.
    This site has been identified as a habitation site of the 
Tubatulabal. The Tubatulabal were loosely organized into three discrete 
bands called Pahkanapil, Palagewan, and Bankalachi (Smithsonian, 
Handbook of North American Indians, Book 8, 1978). The Tubatulabal are 
considered Kern River Indians, speak an Uto-Aztecan language, and live 
in the Kern River/Lake Isabella area, which include the south fork 
(Palagewan) and the lower Kern River below the south fork 
(Tubatulabal). Their neighbors are the Kawaiisu and the Yokuts. The 
Bankalachi, which were a few miles from the Palagewan, resided in 
Yokuts territory. In 1857, the Kern River gold rush began in Palagewan 
territory. During 1862, a few Tubatulabal joined the Owens Valley 
Paiute in hostilities against the Whites, and about this time, a group 
of Koso Indians settled in the Tubatulabal area, intermarrying with the 
Kawaiisu. In 1863, American soldiers killed 35-40 Tubatulabal and 
Palagewan men near Kernville. Between 1865 and 1875, the Tubatulabal 
began to practice agriculture and in 1893, the majority of them and a 
few Palagewan survivors were allotted land in South Fork and Kern 
Valleys. From 1900 to 1972, many Tubatulabals moved to the Tule River 
Indian Reservation, north of the Kern valley region. It is reasonably 
believed that those that survived intermarried with the Yokut in the 
Kern County area. Descendants of these Yokut are members of the 
federally-recognized Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa 
Rancheria, California (Tachi Yokut Tribe) and Tule River Indian Tribe 
of the Tule River Reservation, California.
    Officials of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains 
described above represent the physical remains of one individual of 
Native American ancestry. Officials of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of 
Paleontology also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), 
there is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably 
traced between the Native American human remains and the Santa Rosa 
Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California and Tule River 
Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation, California.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Don 
Lofgren, Director, Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, 1175 West 
Baseline Road, Claremont, CA 91711, telephone (909) 624-2798, before 
July 17, 2008. Repatriation of the human remains to the Santa Rosa 
Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California may proceed 
after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology is responsible for notifying 
the Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California 
and Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation, California 
that this notice has been published.

    Dated: May 4, 2008
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-13569 Filed 6-16-08; 8:45 am]
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