Navy Weapons Station to Repatriate Ancient Beads and Pipes
Published Date: 3/17/2025
Notice
Summary
The Navy at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment Fallbrook plans to return special Native American cultural items like crystals, shell beads, and pipe fragments to the right tribes or descendants starting April 16, 2025. If no one claims them by March 17, 2026, these items will be considered unclaimed. This affects Native American groups connected to these artifacts found in San Diego County, California.
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Navy will return specific cultural items
The U.S. Navy intends to return one lot of unassociated funerary objects and one lot of sacred objects/objects of cultural patrimony to the lineal descendants, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization with priority. The items explicitly listed include 8 tourmaline crystals (excavated 1992 from site CA-SDI-12205), 2 Olivella shell beads and 2 Tizon Brown Ware ceramic pipe fragments (excavated 1997 from site CA-SDI-10158), and 1 quartz crystal (excavated 2013 from site CA-SDI-14374); the items are curated at the San Diego Archaeological Center and disposition may occur on or after April 16, 2025.
Claim deadline or items become unclaimed
Written claims for disposition must be received by March 17, 2026; if no claim is received by that date the cultural items will become unclaimed cultural items. Claims may be submitted by any lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization (including those not named in the notice if they can show priority by a preponderance of the evidence).
Named tribes have priority for disposition
The following Indian Tribes are identified as having priority for disposition of the cultural items: La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians; Pala Band of Mission Indians; Pauma Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pauma & Yuima Reservation; Pechanga Band of Indians; Rincon Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Rincon Reservation; and the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians.
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