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 CSUF, and additional information on the determinations in this notice, including the results of consultation, can be found in the summary or related records. The National Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Abstract of Information Available

A total of 979 cultural items have been requested for repatriation. The 232 unassociated funerary objects are ceramic vessels and sherds, beads, manos and mano fragments, chipped stone tools, debitage, hammerstones, mauls, projectile points, and shell. The 747 objects of cultural patrimony include ceramic vessels and sherds, beads, manos, metates, a pestle, debitage, shell, modified faunal bone including bone awls, chipped stone tools, abraders, a shaft straightener, hammerstones, mauls, modified stone, a stone mortar, faunal bone, pendants, organic material, projectile points, and one lot of uncategorized cultural material.

Unassociated funerary objects and objects of cultural patrimony were collected by Earl and Mildred Wilson, private collectors that focused primarily on areas of New Mexico and Arizona in the 1950s and 1960s. The Wilsons numbered their collecting locations from 0 to 53 and recorded them on hand-drawn maps and with annotations on an Arizona/New Mexico road map. Notebooks from the Wilsons contain detailed descriptions of objects, locations, and dates of collection. Unnumbered but named collecting locations include Pete Bacca's Ranch, Candelaria Ranch, Bibo's Ranch, Floyd Lee Ranch, Grants, NM, in the sand hills, Mirabel's Ranch, and near Milan, NM. The Wilsons wrote that most cultural items were removed from locations in the vicinity of Grants, NM and most were from areas along NM State Road 117. Wilson locations #21, 27, 35, and 46 were noted as sites of human burials. The cultural items were brought to CSUF in 1974 for curation. The university purchased the collection in 1981 and recorded it as Accession #1.

Additional objects of cultural patrimony consisting of a basaltic lava stone mortar and metate were also identified. These items (Acc. 95.24, Acc. 95.25) were donated to CSUF by Charles Ruby, a private collector, in 1983.

CSUF has not identified any records indicating the presence of any potentially hazardous substances used to treat any of the cultural items.

Determinations

CSUF has determined that:

• The 232 unassociated funerary objects described in this notice are reasonably believed to have been placed intentionally with or near human remains, and are connected, either at the time of death or later as part of the death rite or ceremony of a Native American culture according to the Native American traditional knowledge of a lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization. The unassociated funerary objects have been identified by a preponderance of the evidence as related to human remains, specific individuals, or families, or removed from a specific burial site or burial area of an individual or individuals with cultural affiliation to an Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
• The 747 objects of cultural patrimony described in this notice have ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the Native American group, including any constituent sub-group (such as a band, clan, lineage, ceremonial society, or other subdivision), according to the Native American traditional knowledge of an Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
• There is a connection between the cultural items described in this notice and the Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico.

Requests for Repatriation

Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items in this notice must be sent to the authorized representative identified in this notice under 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 November 23, 2026. If competing requests for repatriation are received, CSUF 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. CSUF is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations identified in this notice and to any other consulting parties.

Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 25 U.S.C. 3004 and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.9.

91 FR 66733