[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 121 (Thursday, June 24, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36109-36110]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-15287]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: California 
Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento, CA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    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 in the possession of the California 
Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento, 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.
    In 1962, the Bowles site, CA-BUT-452, in Butte County, CA, was 
recorded by Francis A. Riddell, possibly as part of the Oroville 
reservoir survey. Additional Native American human remains and 
associated funerary objects from Butte County that are in the 
possession of the California Department of Parks and Recreation are 
described in a previously published Notice of Inventory Completion (73 
FR 20937-20939, April 17, 2008). In the collection, there are 24 
Olivella beads, of which 18 are complete, and all are unifacially 
drilled. Acquisition documents are missing, although a tag indicates 
these beads are from burial 2. However, there are no human 
remains from this site in the institution's collection. Therefore, the 
institution reasonably believes the 24 beads are unassociated funerary 
objects.
    The age of these funerary objects is unknown. They are consistent 
with the occupation of the site by the historic Konkow (Northwestern 
Maidu). Generally, archeologists believe that the Penutian-speaking 
Maidu are descended from what have been identified as the Windmiller 
people who occupied the Central Valley of California from 3,000 to 
4,000 years ago. Geographic affiliation is consistent with the 
historically documented Konkow (Northwestern Maidu). Descendants of the 
Konkow (Northwestern Maidu) are members of the Berry Creek Rancheria of 
Maidu Indians of California; Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians of 
California; Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria, California; 
Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California; and Round Valley 
Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation, California.
    Officials of the California Department of Parks and Recreation have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 24 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

[[Page 36110]]

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. Officials of the California Department of Parks and 
Recreation also have determined that, 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 Berry Creek 
Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California; Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu 
Indians of California; Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria, 
California; Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California; and 
Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation, California.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should 
contact Rebecca Carruthers, NAGPRA Coordinator, California Department 
of Parks and Recreation, 1416 Ninth St., Room 902, Sacramento, CA 
95814, telephone (916) 653-8893, before July 26, 2010. Repatriation of 
the unassociated funerary objects to the Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu 
Indians of California; Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians of 
California; Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria, California; 
Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California; and Round Valley 
Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation, California, may proceed 
after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The California Department of Parks and Recreation is responsible 
for notifying the Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California; 
Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California; Mechoopda Indian 
Tribe of Chico Rancheria, California; Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu 
Indians of California; and Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round 
Valley Reservation, California, that this notice has been published.

    Dated: June 18, 2010
David Tarler,
Acting Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2010-15287 Filed 6-23-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S