[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 229 (Tuesday, November 29, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73663-73664]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-30624]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
[2253-665]
National Park Service
Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Washington State
University, Museum of Anthropology, Pullman, WA
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Washington State University, Museum of Anthropology (WSU),
in consultation with the appropriate Indian tribes, has determined that
the cultural items meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects
and repatriation to the Indian tribes stated below may occur if no
additional claimants come forward. Representatives of any Indian tribe
that believes itself to be culturally affiliated with the cultural
items may contact WSU.
DATES: Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes it has a
cultural affiliation with the cultural items should contact WSU at the
address below by December 29, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Mary Collins, Director, Washington State University, Museum
of Anthropology, Pullman, WA 99164-4910, telephone (509) 335-4314.
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 in the
possession of WSU 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 Items
In the 1960s, WSU transferred its ethnographic collection from the
Conner Museum to the Museum of Anthropology. In June of 2011, the
curator of collections at the Conner Museum found four unassociated
funerary items in the museum storage area and transferred them to the
Museum of Anthropology. The items include two brass bracelets, one
necklace of brass and shell beads, and one antler digging stick handle.
Of the four objects, the digging stick handle was the only item with
documentation; it has a label indicating it was accessioned into the
Conner Museum in 1924. All of the items show clear evidence of having
been buried for some period of time and all are object types common to
historic and proto-historic period burials along the Lower Snake River
region of Washington State.
Beginning in the 1960s, Roderick Sprague, Professor Emeritus at the
University of Idaho, began assembling a comparative collection of trade
beads from archeological (mostly burial) sites along the Lower Snake
River. In 2003, Dr. Sprague turned the collection over to the Museum of
Anthropology. Most of the specimens in the collection were identified
as to their site of origin; however, there are 66 lots of glass and
metal bead specimens which have lost their site provenience labels and
are assumed to have come from burial sites along the Lower Snake River.
In 2003, seven items were found at WSU, stored with the materials
from 45AS9, and were determined to be from an unknown site. The seven
items include: 1 button, 1 natural stone, 1 metal nut, 1 lot of glass
beads, and 3 lots of shell beads. The exact site provenience of these
items is not known, nor is it known when the items were acquired by
WSU. Only one of the items, the natural stone, is labeled as having a
burial association; however, the items resemble funerary objects
commonly found in burials on the Lower Snake River.
[[Page 73664]]
In 1992, while performing an inventory and rehabilitation of the
archeological collection from site 45FR40, a number of items labeled as
coming from burial associations were identified. The records of the
1957 excavation at the site do not report any burial excavations and so
it was determined that the site provenience of these items is unknown.
The 16 cultural items include 1 button, 8 unidentified historic items,
1 lot of animal fur, 2 lots of plant remains, 1 lot of bone beads, 1
lot of stone beads, 1 lot of bag residue, and 1 lot of mammal remains.
Although the exact site provenience is not known, it is believed that
given the storage association with site 45FR40 and the history of
excavations at other sites along the Lower Snake River during the 1950s
through 1970s these items probably come from a burial site along the
Lower Snake River.
The Lower Snake River region of southeastern WA is known to have
included parts of the traditional territories of a number of Native
American groups whose descendents now comprise members of the
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Washington; Nez Perce
Tribe, Idaho; Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, Oregon;
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon,
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Washington
(hereinafter referred to as ``The Tribes''); and the Wanapum Band, a
non-Federally recognized Indian group (hereinafter referred to as ``The
Indian Group'').
Determinations Made by Washington State University, Department of
Anthropology
Officials of WSU have determined that:
Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 93 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 is 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, The Tribes, and The Indian Group.
Additional Requestors and Disposition
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to
be culturally affiliated with the cultural items should contact Mary
Collins, Director of the Museum of Anthropology at Washington State
University, Pullman, WA 99163, (509) 335-4314, before December 29,
2011. Repatriation of the 93 unassociated funerary objects to The
Tribes and The Indian Group may proceed after that date if no
additional claimants come forward.
The Washington State University, Museum of Anthropology is
responsible for notifying The Tribes and The Indian Group that this
notice has been published.
Dated: November 22, 2011.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2011-30624 Filed 11-28-11; 8:45 am]
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