[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 109 (Thursday, June 6, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34131-34132]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-13461]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-13010; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service, San Juan National Forest, Durango, CO
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, San
Juan National Forest, in consultation with the appropriate Indian
tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, has determined that the
cultural items listed in this notice meet the definition of
unassociated funerary objects. Lineal descendants or representatives of
any Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this
notice that wish to claim these cultural items should submit a written
request to the San Juan National Forest. If no additional claimants
come forward, transfer of control of the cultural items to the lineal
descendants, Indian tribes, or Native Hawaiian organizations stated in
this notice may proceed.
DATES: Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian tribe or
Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to
claim these cultural items should submit a written request with
information in support of the claim to the San Juan National Forest at
the address in this notice by July 8, 2013.
ADDRESSES: Julie Coleman, Heritage Program Manager, San Juan National
Forest, 15 Burnett Court, Durango, CO 81301, telephone (970) 385-1250,
email jacoleman@fs.fed.us.
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 under the
control of the USDA Forest Service, San Juan National Forest, Durango,
CO, 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
Between 1937 and 1938, 190 unassociated funerary objects were
removed from the burial crevice and north cave shelter of the Falls
Creek Rock Shelters (site 5LP1434), in Animas Valley, north of Durango,
in LaPlata County, CO. In 1937, I. F. ``Zeke'' Flora conducted
excavations without a permit in the burial crevice of Falls Creek Rock
Shelters, on lands managed by the USDA Forest Service. In 1938, Earl
Morris, Department of Archaeology, The Carnegie Institution, conducted
excavations in the north and south cave shelters of Falls Creek Rock
Shelters, under permit by the USDA. Flora and Morris both collected
human remains and associated funerary objects, which are the subject of
a separate Notice of Inventory Completion published in the Federal
Register.
A portion of the Flora collection at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters
was housed at the Durango Public Library, Durango, CO. In 1945, it was
transferred into the custody of the Mesa Verde National Park at the
request of the Forest Service. Flora transferred additional items he
collected at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters into the custody of the Mesa
Verde National Park between 1962 and 1963. In November 2009, Mesa Verde
National Park transferred these items to the Anasazi Heritage Center in
Dolores, CO, where they are currently located. Additionally, in 1999,
USDA Forest Service Law Enforcement seized a hide robe from Flora's
daughter that had been collected by Flora at the Falls Creek Rock
Shelters. Subsequently, in 2009, Bureau of Land Management Law
Enforcement seized items in the custody of Vern Crites of Durango, CO,
that were removed by Flora in 1937 at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters.
Finally, in 2011, the Center for Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College,
transferred to the Anasazi Heritage Center a necklace that had been
excavated by Flora at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters and given to Fort
Lewis College by Helen Sloan Daniels.
The Morris collection at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters, as well as
a portion of the Flora collection from the site purchased by Morris for
The Carnegie Institution, was curated by the Peabody Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and by
the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, CO. In
February 2009, these items were transferred into the custody of the
Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, CO. Between February 2009 and March
2013, a team of researchers at the Anasazi Heritage Center conducted an
intensive non-destructive analysis of the all of the items collected by
Morris and Flora at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters. This effort allowed
researchers to re-associate human remains and funerary objects that had
been separated and curated at different places, and to determine the
unassociated funerary objects in the collection.
In all, 190 objects are determined to be unassociated funerary
objects from the Falls Creek Rock Shelters, including 188 objects from
the burial crevice and 2 objects from the burial trench in the north
cave shelter. The 188 objects from the burial crevice are 6 hide
artifacts; 1 deer hair; 8 twined mats (all vegetal materials); 3 twined
blankets (human and animal hair, yucca, hide, bark, and feathers); 12
plant fiber bundles; 10 vegetal seeds, rind, and stem; 7 maize cobs; 3
maize kernels; 18 pieces of cordage (includes human hair, yucca, and
dog); 2 bullrush braids; 10 textiles (yucca, feathers, rabbit hair, and
hide); 3 twined bags (yucca); 10 baskets; 1 bark slab; 1 cradleboard
(oak/willow frame, sumac rods, and sinew wrap); 4 wrapped sticks (twigs
wrapped with sinew and turkey feather quills); 1 hide sandal; 10 yucca
sandals; 1 wood Atlatl fragment; 1 piece of worked wood; 1
[[Page 34132]]
wood awl; 1 hafted stone drill; 1 stone drill fragment; 1 chert
scraper; 22 pieces of flaked stone (debitage, bifaces whole and
fragments); 1 piece of mineral; 5 deer mandible ornaments; 1 bone
ornament; 3 bone awls; 1 whole shell (Orehelix); 2 juniper seed beads;
2 miscellaneous beads (unidentified material); 1 lignite bead; 4 shell
beads or pendants; 1 pendant (unidentified material); a necklace
containing 5 Olivella beads, 1 lignite pendant, and hide cordage; and a
necklace containing 1 Olivella dama bead, 1 Olivella biplicata bead, 1
Olivella spicata bead, 18 juniper seed beads, and yucca cordage. The 2
objects from the burial trench in the north cave shelter are: 1
chalcedony dart point, medial fragment, and 1 chert dart point, distal
fragment.
The Falls Creek Rock Shelters have been identified as a Basketmaker
II habitation site, with the main occupation occurring between 300 B.C.
and A.D. 400, based upon tree-ring dates. Archaeological, biological,
and geographic evidence, along with oral traditions, indicate that the
Basketmaker II populations of the Durango/Upper Animas District, in
southwest Colorado, are culturally affiliated with the modern Puebloan
people (Coleman 2013: 12). This includes the modern day tribes of the
Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Kewa Pueblo, New Mexico (previously listed as
the Pueblo of Santo Domingo); Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico (previously
listed as the Pueblo of San Juan); Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; Pueblo
of Cochiti, New Mexico; Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico; Pueblo of Jemez,
New Mexico; Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico; Pueblo of Nambe, New Mexico;
Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico; Pueblo of Pojoaque, New Mexico; Pueblo
of San Felipe, New Mexico; Pueblo of San Ildefonso, New Mexico; Pueblo
of Sandia, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa
Clara, New Mexico; Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico; Pueblo of Tesuque, New
Mexico; Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico; Ysleta del Sur Pueblo of Texas; and
the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico (hereafter referred
to as ``The Tribes'').
This determination is based upon the extensive review of currently
available published and unpublished sources and information provided by
Indian tribes during consultations. Archaeological evidence consists of
chronological data, artifacts, and rock art. Recent DNA research also
demonstrates a biological affiliation between Basketmaker II
populations and modern Puebloans. Hopi and Zuni oral traditions provide
additional information, including geographic evidence, for cultural
affiliation between Basketmaker II and the present day Puebloan people.
Determinations Made by the USDA Forest Service, San Juan National
Forest
Officials of the San Juan National Forest have determined that:
Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 190 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 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.
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 Tribes.
Additional Requestors and Disposition
Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian tribe or Native
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to claim
these cultural items should submit a written request with information
in support of the claim to Julie Coleman, Heritage Program Manager, San
Juan National Forest, 15 Burnett Court, Durango, CO 81301, telephone
(970) 385-1250, email jacoleman@fs.fed.us, by July 8, 2013. After that
date, if no additional claimants have come forward, transfer of control
of the unassociated funerary objects to The Tribes may proceed.
The San Juan National Forest is responsible for notifying the Hopi
Tribe of Arizona; Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico; Kewa Pueblo, New
Mexico (previously listed as the Pueblo of Santo Domingo); Navajo
Nation, Arizona, New Mexico & Utah; Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico
(previously listed as the Pueblo of San Juan); Pueblo of Acoma, New
Mexico; Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico; Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico;
Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico; Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico; Pueblo of
Nambe, New Mexico; Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico; Pueblo of Pojoaque,
New Mexico; Pueblo of San Felipe, New Mexico; Pueblo of San Ildefonso,
New Mexico; Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Ana, New
Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico; Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico;
Pueblo of Tesuque, New Mexico; Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico; Southern Ute
Indian Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado; Ute Indian
Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah; Ute Mountain Tribe of
the Ute Mountain Reservation, Colorado, New Mexico & Utah; Ysleta del
Sur Pueblo of Texas; and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New
Mexico, that this notice has been published.
Dated: May 6, 2013.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2013-13461 Filed 6-5-13; 8:45 am]
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