[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 178 (Friday, September 13, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74989-74990]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-20867]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0038697; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: San Bernardino County Museum, 
Redlands, CA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and

[[Page 74990]]

Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the San Bernardino County Museum has 
completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects 
and has determined that there is a cultural affiliation between the 
human remains and associated funerary objects and Indian Tribes or 
Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice.

DATES: Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects in this notice may occur on or after October 15, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Tamara Serrao-Leiva, San Bernardino County Museum, 2024 
Orange Tree Lane, Redlands, CA 92374, telephone (909) 798-8623, 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 
San Bernardino County Museum, and additional information on the 
determinations in this notice, including the results of consultation, 
can be found in its inventory or related records. The National Park 
Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Abstract of Information Available

    Human remains representing at least one individual have been 
identified. The 12 associated funerary objects include a pendant, 
projectile points, pipe stem fragments, pottery sherds, faunal 
fragments, flakes, shell fragments, ground stone, stone tools, 
projectile points, shell beads, and historic beads. San Bernadino 
County Museum site numbers SBCM-815 (also SBCM-5868) are considered the 
same site to the culturally affiliated tribes list below. This site was 
recorded by B. McCown on March 1944 and was excavated by McCown in 1948 
through the Archaeological Survey Association (ASA) (McCown Site #7, 
Santa Margarita River) in Fallbrook, CA. In Collected Papers of 
Benjamin Ernest McCown, Excavation of Fallbrook Site No. 7, 
Archaeological Survey Association of Southern California Paper Number 
Six, 1964, pgs 61-72, McCown confirms the presence of a human cremation 
that he excavated from April 10, 1948, to July 16, 1948. McCown writes 
that only a small amount of the bones was left in place due to the 
flood waters, but that the ``remains suggest an adult of about middle 
age'' (page 64). Based on this reference, there seems to have been much 
more collected than is present at San Bernardino County Museum. The 
collection was donated to the county museum in two instances, hence the 
different catalog numbers. The first donation was in 1956 and the 
second when the ASA disbanded and donated McCown's collection to the 
county museum in the early 2000s.
    Human remains representing at least one individual has been 
identified. The six associated funerary objects reflected in the record 
are ground stone, lithics, ceramics, faunal bone, worked shell (beads), 
and ecofacts. San Bernadino County Museum site number SBCM-5907 is in 
the Murrieta Creek region of Riverside County, about one mile south of 
Old Town, Temecula. In 1953 a note included in the Accession file 
connects this site to Vail Ranch by the ``Temeku fork of River.'' Vail 
Ranch was an 87,000-acre cattle ranch purchased by Walter Vail in 1905. 
His ranch headquarters was located along Temecula Creek in an area now 
bordered by Temecula Parkway. The site was first documented 3/30/1952 
and later excavated by Benjamin McCown who donated the collection to 
the museum in 1956. No known hazardous substances were used to treat 
this collection.

Cultural Affiliation

    Based on the information available and the results of consultation, 
cultural affiliation is reasonably identified by the geographical 
location or acquisition history of the human remains and associated 
funerary objects described in this notice.

Determinations

    The San Bernardino County Museum has determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of two individuals of Native American ancestry.
     The 18 objects described in this notice are reasonably 
believed to have been placed intentionally with or near individual 
human remains at the time of death or later as part of the death rite 
or ceremony.
     There is a connection between the human remains and 
associated funerary objects described in this notice and the La Jolla 
Band of Luiseno Indians, California; Pala Band of Mission Indians; 
Pauma Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pauma & Yuima Reservation, 
California; Pechanga Band of Indians (previously listed as Pechanga 
Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pechanga Reservation, 
California); Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Rincon 
Reservation, California; and the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians, 
California.

Requests for Repatriation

    Written requests for repatriation of the human remains and 
associated funerary objects in this notice must be sent to the 
authorized representative identified in this notice under ADDRESSES. 
Requests for repatriation may be submitted by:
    1. Any one or more of the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian 
organizations identified in this notice.
    2. 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 an Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization with 
cultural affiliation.
    Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary objects 
described in this notice to a requestor may occur on or after October 
15, 2024. If competing requests for repatriation are received, the San 
Bernardino County Museum must determine the most appropriate requestor 
prior to repatriation. Requests for joint repatriation of the human 
remains and associated funerary objects are considered a single request 
and not competing requests. The San Bernardino County Museum is 
responsible for sending a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribes and 
Native Hawaiian organizations identified in this notice.
    Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.10.

    Dated: September 5, 2024.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2024-20867 Filed 9-12-24; 8:45 am]
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