[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 235 (Wednesday, December 9, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65147-65148]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-29295]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: San Diego Museum of Man, San 
Diego, 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 and associated funerary 
objects in the possession and control of the San Diego Museum of Man, 
San Diego, CA. The human remains and associated funerary objects were 
removed from Kern, Sacramento, and Tulare Counties, 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 and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the San 
Diego Museum of Man professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa 
Rancheria, California.
    In 1958, human remains representing a minimum of four individuals 
were removed from a burial site on a delta area called the ``Meadows'' 
near the mouth of the Snodgrass Slough on an island in the Sacramento 
River in the vicinity of Walnut Grove, Sacramento County, CA. The human 
remains and associated funerary objects were collected by Mr. and Mrs. 
Ken and Shirley Westbrook, and donated to the San Diego Museum of Man 
on July 10, 1961. No known individuals were identified. The 13 
associated funerary objects are 1 pestle, 1 bone awl, 3 stone 
projectile point fragments, and 8 fired clay fragments.
    The remains of two of the individuals consist of partial skulls 
with associated mandibles. Originally, the other two individuals were 
determined to be two bone awls, but were subsequently identified as 
human remains. As noted by the donors, the site had been disturbed and 
the remains of a great number of individuals seemed to be represented. 
According to the Museum of Man records, the human remains and 
associated funerary objects are believed to date to prehistoric or pre-
contact time. The Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa 
Rancheria, Tachi Yokut Tribe, has provided the museum with information 
consisting of oral stories, territory and language family maps, and 
written ethnographical information about the Yokuts and their inter-
relationships with surrounding communities, which also covers the 
territory where the human remains and associated funerary objects were 
discovered, and provides a determination of more likely than not of 
cultural affiliation to the human remains and associated funerary 
objects.
    On an unknown date, human remains representing a minimum of seven 
individuals were removed from a burial mound ``at the Indian village 
site'' near the east shore of Tulare Lake at the junction of the Elk 
Bayou and Tule Rivers, a quarter mile east of the Kings County border, 
five miles from the town of Corcoran, in Tulare County, CA. The human 
remains and associated funerary objects were collected by Mr. David 
Folsom, and donated to the museum on November 13, 1954. No known 
individuals were identified. The 59 associated funerary objects are 2 
strands of glass trade beads, 1 strand of shell disk beads, 1 strand of 
steatite disk beads, 2 strands of olivella shell beads, 4 tubular shell 
beads, 1 shell tube, 1 steatite ceremonial stone, 1 abalone shell dish, 
1 pismo clam shell bead, 2 abalone shell disk beads, 3 abalone shell 
ornaments, 3 abalone shell pendants, 1 bird claw, 1 clay bead, 1 bird 
bone ear ornament, 1 plummet stone, 3 stone projectile points, 1 
obsidian drill, 2 stone blades, 2 slate blades, 23 fragments of a 
steatite bowl (or bowls), and 2 miscellaneous steatite objects. There 
are eight tubular shell beads currently missing in the collection.
    Museum records indicate that the burial mound consisted of complete 
skeletons, but only the skulls and funerary objects associated with the 
burials were collected by the donor. According to the donor, ``the 
burial mound is called the ``plague pit'' by the local inhabitants due 
to a story that in historic times, there was a plague among the Native 
American people of the area which killed large numbers of them in a 
short period of time. Their bodies were hurriedly thrown into a large 
common grave which is supposed to be the mound.'' The donor also states 
that ``the beads were found in the area below the skulls, indicating 
that they were necklaces, and other artifacts were placed on the bodies 
or near them.'' Records indicate that the glass trade beads found 
associated with the burials indicates that they are historic burials 
and that the location of the site indicates that these are Yokut Indian 
burials. The Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, 
Tachi Yokut Tribe, has provided the museum with information consisting 
of oral stories, territory and language family maps, and written 
ethnographical information about the Yokuts and their inter-
relationships with surrounding communities, which also covers the 
territory where the human remains and associated funerary objects were 
discovered, and supports a determination of more likely than not of 
cultural affiliation to the human remains and associated funerary 
objects.
    In 1956, human remains representing a minimum of one individual 
were removed from a burial located two miles north of the town of Pond 
on Central Valley Highway, in Kern County, CA. In 1972, the human 
remains were gifted as part of a collection to the San Diego Museum of 
Man by Dr. Carl L. Hubbs of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. No 
known individual was identified. No associated funerary objects are 
present.

[[Page 65148]]

    The burial was recorded as being in a sitting position and was 
exposed by land leveling, about two feet below the surface. The pelvis 
bone was permeated with gypsum or salt. Museum records indicate that 
the cultural affiliation of the human remains is southern/central 
Yokuts, and indicates the age as prehistoric. The Santa Rosa Indian 
Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, Tachi Yokut Tribe, has provided 
the museum with information consisting of oral stories, territory and 
language family maps, and written ethnographical information about the 
Yokuts and their inter-relationships with surrounding communities, 
which also covers the territory where the human remains were 
discovered, and provides a determination of more likely than not of 
cultural affiliation to the human remains.
    Officials of the San Diego Museum of Man have determined that, 
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains described above 
represent the physical remains of 12 individuals of Native American 
ancestry. Officials of the San Diego Museum of Man also have determined 
that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(A), the 72 objects 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. Lastly, officials of the San Diego Museum of Man 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 associated funerary 
objects and the Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa 
Rancheria, California.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Philip Hoog, Archaeology and NAGPRA Coordinator, 
San Diego Museum of Man, 1350 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 
92101, telephone (619) 239-2001, before January 8, 2010. Repatriation 
of the human remains and associated funerary objects to the Santa Rosa 
Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California may proceed 
after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The San Diego Museum of Man is responsible for notifying the Santa 
Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California that this 
notice has been published.

    Dated: October 15, 2009.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-29295 Filed 12-8-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S