[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 168 (Thursday, August 31, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60239-60240]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-18821]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0036492; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Field Museum, 
Chicago, IL

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Field Museum intends to repatriate 
certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated 
funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony and 
that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native 
Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The cultural items were removed 
from Kings County, CA.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after October 2, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Helen Robbins, Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, 
Chicago, IL 60605-2496, telephone (312) 665-7317, 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 
Field Museum. 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 Field 
Museum.

Description

    The 25 cultural items listed in this notice were removed from Kings 
County, CA. In May and June of 1901, Dr. John Hudson collected the 
cultural items on behalf of the Field Museum during a two-year 
expedition among the Native populations of California. That same year, 
the Field Museum accessioned these cultural items. Two of the cultural 
items are unassociated funerary objects. They are one lot consisting of 
shells and wampum, and one glass bead necklace. Nine of the cultural 
items are sacred objects. They are one dance clapper, one headdress, 
one roll of eagle down, one head net, one skirt, one hand wand, one 
bunch of eagle down, one lot consisting of white paint, and one roll of 
jay feathers. Fourteen of the cultural items are objects of cultural 
patrimony. They are one wooden mortar, two stone mortars, three sifting 
trays, one cooking basket, one small basket, one digging stick, one 
bone awl, one set of quiver and arrows, and three drills.

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: anthropological, 
geographical, historical, oral traditional, and expert opinion.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the Field Museum has determined that:
     Two of the 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.
     Nine of the cultural items described above are specific 
ceremonial objects needed by traditional Native American religious 
leaders for the practice of traditional Native American religions by 
their present-day adherents.
     Fourteen of the cultural items described above have 
ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the 
Native American group or culture itself, rather than property owned by 
an individual.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Santa Rosa 
Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, 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 Field Museum 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 Field Museum 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

[[Page 60240]]

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. 2023-18821 Filed 8-30-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P