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 Bruce Museum, Inc., 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 five cultural items have been requested for repatriation. The five scared objects are two umbilical cord holders (one is a pair), two hand drums, and one rattle.

I.02025  Red cotton fabric, stuffed, and tied into the shape of a lizard. Exterior wrapped with a string of beads, mainly white, mixed with red, green, blue, and yellow. Pairs of tin tinklers with remnant red feathers attached. Contents unknown. No testing to determine contents was performed. Undocumented acquisition history or cultural affiliation, geographical location is considered to be the Great Plains.

16123.a-.b  Pair of attached, flat, diamond shaped, stuffed, beaded, sinew sewn, tanned hide, umbilical cord containers. Top beaded in bands of light blue, yellow, red, green, blue, & pink; tin cones with remnant horsehair at end ( printed page 17988) of four looped buckskin strings; remnant red quill wrap on strings. Contents unknown, no testing to determine contents was performed. Undocumented acquisition history or cultural affiliation, geographical location is considered to be the Great Plains.

00158.10  Hand drum. Single piece bent wood circular frame, bison skin head. Perimeter painted blue; at center is a wide-eyed bison head with wavy lines below, and two concentric blue discs, connected by a blue wavy line. Made at Fort Peck, c.1889, by Siyosapa, aka Dr. Black Prairie Chicken, Hunkpapa Lakota/Yanktonai Nakota. Donated to the Bruce in 1927, from the collection of William H. Tallmadge who served as a Special Indian Agent from 1888-1889.

00158.11  Hand drum. Single piece bent wood circular frame, bison skin heads. Two bison horns attached to top by nails and rawhide lace. Perimeter painted in concentric circles of blue and green. Center is a narrow-faced bison, blue outline, red face, eyes, nostrils, and mane. Made at Fort Peck, c.1889, by Siyosapa, aka Dr. Black Prairie Chicken, Hunkpapa Lakota/Yanktonai Nakota. Donated to the Bruce in 1927, from the collection of William H. Tallmadge who served as a Special Indian Agent from 1888-1889.

00407.33  Rattle. Gourd and painted hide (likely bison scrotum) containing pebbles; wood handle wrapped in ribbon. Painted in deep blue: skeletal face wearing a hood. Attributed to the Bird collection, gifted in 1938, more likely part of the Tallmadge collection, see above.

No potentially hazardous materials were used to treat any of the cultural items.

Determinations

The Bruce Museum, Inc. has determined that:

• The five sacred objects described in this notice are specific ceremonial objects needed by a traditional Native American religious leader for present-day adherents to practice traditional Native American religion, according to the Native American traditional knowledge of a lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization.
• There is a connection between the cultural items described in this notice and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana.

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 May 11, 2026. If competing requests for repatriation are received, the Bruce Museum, Inc. 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. The Bruce Museum, Inc. 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.