[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 232 (Tuesday, December 5, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 84350-84351]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-26619]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037014; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Los Angeles County 
Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, CA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural 
History (LACMNH) intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet 
the definition of unassociated funerary objects and certain cultural 
items that meet the definition of 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 Orange and Los Angeles Counties, CA.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after January 4, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Amy E. Gusick, NAGPRA Officer, Los Angeles County Museum of 
Natural History, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90007, 
telephone (213) 763-3370, 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 
LACMNH. 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 LACMNH.

[[Page 84351]]

Description

    At various times, 226 objects of cultural patrimony were removed 
from Laguna Beach in Orange County, CA. In 1935, A.D. Griffin found one 
object (a digging tool) at an unidentified site in Laguna Beach. 
Subsequently, this item was donated to LACMNH. At a date prior to 1971, 
Carl D. Hegner collected one object (a donut-shaped stone) from an 
unidentified site in Laguna Beach, and in 1971, the Native Daughters of 
the Golden West donated this item to LACMNH. At a date prior to 1966, 
University of Southern California professor W.J. Wallace excavated 201 
objects from Cameo Cove in Laguna Beach. These items were transferred 
to the Laboratory of Anthropology of the Hancock Foundation (Hancock 
Foundation), a now-disbanded museum that was once part of the 
University of Southern California. On February 1, 1966, the Hancock 
Foundation loaned these items to LACMNH, and on March 29, 1983, the 
loan was converted to a donation. At one or more dates prior to 1966, 
23 cultural items were removed from unidentified sites in Laguna Beach 
and transferred to the Hancock Foundation. On February 1, 1966, the 
Hancock Foundation loaned these items to LACMNH, and on March 29, 1983, 
the loan was converted to a donation. The 226 objects of cultural 
patrimony are one bead, four cobble tools, five cores, one donut-shaped 
stone, 90 faunal bones or bone fragments, six fire affected stones, 15 
flaked stones, two groundstone fragments, one hammerstone, seven manos 
or mano fragments, one grooved maul, five metates or metate fragments, 
two ochre fragments, one mortar, two pestle fragments, eight rocks, one 
scraper, 73 stones, and one unidentified lithic tool.
    In 1954, University of Southern California professor W.J. Wallace 
excavated 22 associated funerary objects at the Los Altos site (LAN-
270) in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, CA. These items were 
transferred to the Hancock Foundation, and in 1983, the Hancock 
Foundation donated them to LACMNH. The 22 unassociated funerary objects 
are three rattles, two bone tubes, one shell, one bead, two stones, 
four containers or container fragments, six tools, two projectile 
points, and one faunal bone.

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, 
archeological, historical, oral traditional, and Indigenous knowledge.
    The Acjachemen Nation, Gabrieleno Tribes, and Tongva Tribes 
(``People of the Earth'') have strong cultural ties to the Laguna Beach 
and Long Beach coastlines. In particular, Puvungna, located on the 
California State University, Long Beach campus, is a site sacred to the 
Gabrieleno, Tongva, and Acjachemen as being associated with their 
Creation account and Tribal history, and is the locus of annual 
pilgrimages by them. The Luise[ntilde]o people, which include the 
Pechanga Band of Indians, share cultural practices and beliefs with the 
Gabrieleno, Tongva, and Acjachemen, and all four groups are 
linguistically related.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the LACMNH has determined that:
     The 22 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.
     The 226 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 Pechanga Band 
of Indians (Previously listed as Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission 
Indians of the Pechanga Reservation, 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 January 4, 2024. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the LACMNH 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 LACMNH 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 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.8, 10.10, 
and 10.14.

    Dated: November 28, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-26619 Filed 12-4-23; 8:45 am]
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