[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 20 (Monday, February 2, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5853-5854]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-2124]


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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).
    At an unknown date, human remains representing a minimum of six 
individuals were removed from the Kern Valley area near Kernville, Kern 
County, CA. No known individuals were identified. No associated 
funerary objects are present.
    The Kern Valley area is near Kernville, Kern County, in the Central 
California area. Museum officials reasonably believe, based on 
locations where the museum has previously collected non-paleontological 
specimens, that these six individuals may have been collected from the 
same area associated with another individual described in a published 
Notice of Inventory Completion in the Federal Register (73 FR 34318, 
June 17, 2008), although at the time of publication the museum was 
unable to relate the six individuals in this notice to that individual. 
However, officials of the Raymond M. Alf Museum have subsequently 
determined that the six individuals in this notice are probably from 
the same area, and possibly the same site as the individual in the June 
17, 2008 notice, based on two separate analyses, museum collection 
history, and tribal consultation.
    An investigation of the human remains conducted by Dr. Gail 
Kennedy, Physical Anthropologist, University of California, Los 
Angeles, determined that the individuals were California Native 
American based on dental wear. Tribal representatives of the Santa Rosa 
Rancheria conducted a second analysis, and independently concluded that 
the human remains are Native American.
    The Kern Valley site is most likely either the habitation site of 
the Tubatulabal from which the individual in the June 17, 2008 notice 
had been removed, or a similar site. The Tubatulabal were loosely 
organized into three discrete bands called Pahkanapil, Palagewan, and 
Bankalachi (Smithsonian Institution, 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 includes the south fork (Palagewan) and the lower 
Kern River below the south fork (Tubatulabal). Their neighbors are the 
Kawaiisu and the Yokuts. The Bankalachi, who were located 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

[[Page 5854]]

Kawaiisu. In 1863, soldiers of the U.S. Army killed 35-40 Tubatulabal 
and Palagewan men near Kernville. Starting in 1865, the Tubatulabal 
began to practice agriculture and in 1893, the majority of them and a 
few Palagewan survivors were allotted land in the 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 Yokuts in the 
Kern County area. Descendants of these Yokuts are members of the 
Federally-recognized Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa 
Rancheria, California 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 six individuals 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 
March 4, 2009. 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.
    The 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: January 9, 2009
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-2124 Filed 1-30-09; 8:45 am]
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