[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 17 (Monday, January 27, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3914-3915]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-1854]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items in the Possession 
of the Mesa Southwest Museum, Mesa, AZ

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is hereby given under the Native American Graves Protection 
and Repatriation Act, 25 U.S.C. 3005 (a)(2), of the intent to 
repatriate cultural items in the possession of the Mesa Southwest 
Museum, Mesa, AZ, which meet the definition of ``object of cultural 
patrimony'' under Section 2 of the Act.
    The items are Western Apache Gaan material consisting of one 
Dilzini Gaan mask, one Dilzini Gaan wooden headdress, one Dilzini Gaan 
standard with four flat cross bars, and one set of 18 pieces of a 
Dilzini Gaan wooden headdress. All these items are made of painted wood 
and/or cloth and were acquired by the Museum in 1979, 1985, and 1991.
    The cultural affiliation of the first three items is clearly 
Western Apache as documented in museum records and verified by the Camp 
Verde Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Community, 
the Tonto Apache Tribe, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and the White 
Mountain Apache Tribe. The fourth item, one set of 18 pieces of a 
Dilzini Gaan wooden headdress, was collected near Sanders, AZ, and it 
has been clearly identified as Western Apache by the Camp Verde 
Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Community, the 
Tonto Apache Tribe, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and the White Mountain 
Apache Tribe. The San Carlos Apache Tribe and the White Mountain Apache 
Tribe have documented that these items have ongoing traditional and 
cultural importance to the tribes and could not have been conveyed by 
any individual tribal member.
    Based on the above mentioned information, officials of the Mesa 
Southwest Museum have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 
(3)(D), these four cultural items have ongoing historical, traditional, 
and cultural importance central to the San Carlos Apache Tribe and 
White Mountain Apache Tribe, and could not have been alienated, 
appropriated, or conveyed by any individual. Mesa Southwest Museum 
officials have also determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), 
there is a relationship of shared group identity which can be 
reasonably traced between these items and the San Carlos Apache Tribe 
and White Mountain Apache Tribe.
    This notice has been sent to officials of the San Carlos Apache 
Tribe, the Camp Verde Yavapai-Apache Community, the Fort McDowell 
Mohave-Apache Community, the Tonto Apache Tribe, and the White Mountain 
Apache Tribe. Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes 
itself to be culturally affiliated with these objects should contact 
Tray C. Mead, Museum Administrator, Mesa Southwest Museum, 53 N. 
Macdonald, Mesa, AZ 85201, or telephone Dr. Susan Shaffer Nahmias, 
NAGPRA/Tribal Liaison at (602) 644-2563 before February 26, 1997. 
Repatriation of these objects to the San Carlos Apache Tribe and White 
Mountain Apache Tribe may

[[Page 3915]]

begin after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
Dated: January 17, 1997.

    Veletta Canouts,
Acting Departmental Consulting Archeologist,
Deputy Manager, Archeology and Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 97-1854 Filed 1-24-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F