83 FR 28256 - Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Riverside Metropolitan Museum, Riverside, CA

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 117 (June 18, 2018)

The Riverside Metropolitan Museum, in consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, has determined that the cultural items listed in this notice meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects. Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to claim these cultural items should submit a written request to the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. If no additional claimants come forward, transfer of control of the cultural items to the lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, or Native Hawaiian organizations stated in this notice may proceed.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 117 (Monday, June 18, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28256-28257]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-13038]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0025562; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Riverside 
Metropolitan Museum, Riverside, CA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Riverside Metropolitan Museum, in consultation with the 
appropriate Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, has 
determined that the cultural items listed in this notice meet the 
definition of unassociated funerary objects. Lineal descendants or 
representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not 
identified in this notice that wish to claim these cultural items 
should submit a written request to the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. 
If no additional claimants come forward, transfer of control of the 
cultural items to the lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, or Native 
Hawaiian organizations stated in this notice may proceed.

DATES: Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or 
Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
claim these cultural items should submit a written request with 
information in support of the claim to the Riverside Metropolitan 
Museum at the address in this notice by July 18, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Robyn G. Peterson, Ph.D., Museum Director, Riverside 
Metropolitan Museum, 3580 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA 92501, 
telephone (951) 826-5792, email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is here given in accordance with the 
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 
U.S.C. 3005, of the intent to repatriate cultural items under the 
control of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum, Riverside, CA, that meet 
the definition of unassociated funerary objects under 25 U.S.C. 3001.
    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 cultural items. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.

History and Description of the Cultural Item(s)

    In 1930, Samuel C. Evans purchased a string of shell and stone 
beads in a cloth bag from Clark's Store, San Diego County, CA. In 1996, 
a collection of Native American materials (RMM Accn. #A1524) from the 
estate of Samuel C. Evans was donated to the Riverside Municipal Museum 
by his son Samuel W. Evans. This donation included the string of shell 
and stone beads in a cloth bag. The two unassociated funerary objects 
have been determined to be from the Rincon Band of Luise[ntilde]o 
Indians based on cultural and historical evidence. In Kroeber's 
Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians (1908), he analyzed beads found in 
a burial at San Jacinto, describing them as less regular than other 
specimens. The string of beads in question has the characteristics of 
traditional Luise[ntilde]o beads as utilized by the people of the 
Rincon Band of Luise[ntilde]o Indians.
    Information provided during consultations documented that Clark's 
store in San Diego County, CA, was within the traditional aboriginal 
territory of the Rincon Band of Luise[ntilde]o Indians. The Rincon Band 
of Luise[ntilde]o Indians Museum Specialist wrote ``The Rincon store 
was located on the southwest corner of Pala Road (Highway 76) and 
Valley Center Road and clearly within the traditional territory of the 
Tribe, and in immediate proximity to its current reservation 
boundaries. . . . The Tribe has no doubt that the string of bead and 
the bag are funerary objects and came from the traditional territory of 
the Rincon Band of Luise[ntilde]o Indians'' (9/19/2017).

[[Page 28257]]

Determinations Made by the Riverside Metropolitan Museum

    Officials of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum have determined 
that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the two 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.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(2), there is a relationship of 
shared group identity that can be reasonably traced between the 
unassociated funerary objects and the Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission 
Indians of the Rincon Reservation, California.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to claim 
these cultural items should submit a written request with information 
in support of the claim to Robyn G. Peterson, Ph.D., Museum Director, 
Riverside Metropolitan Museum, 3580 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA 
92501, telephone (951) 826-5792, email [email protected], by 
July 18, 2018. After that date, if no additional claimants have come 
forward, transfer of control of the unassociated funerary objects to 
the Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Rincon Reservation, 
California may proceed.
    The Riverside Metropolitan Museum is responsible for notifying the 
Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Rincon Reservation, 
California that this notice has been published.

    Dated: May 9, 2018.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2018-13038 Filed 6-15-18; 8:45 am]
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