[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 149 (Tuesday, August 4, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Page 41591]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-20713]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items in the Possession 
of Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, MA

AGENCY: National Park Service, DOI.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is hereby given under the Native American Graves Protection 
and Repatriation Act, 43 CFR 10.10 (a)(3), of the intent to repatriate 
cultural items in the possession of Pilgrim Hall Museum which meet the 
definition of ``unassociated funerary objects'' under Section 2 of the 
Act.
    The 16 cultural items consist of 13 white and one dark disk-shaped 
wampum beads, a piece of beaten copper, and a round flate white stone.
    In 1990, these cultural items were donated to Pilgrim Hall Museum 
by Ms. Theodora Adams of Plymouth, MA. According to documentation 
accompanying these cultural items, they were ``dug up with a skeleton 
at Wollaston'' (MA) at an unknown date. The location of the human 
remains is not known.
    Wollaston, located in Quincy, Norfolk County, MA has been 
identified as within the traditional territory of the Massachuset 
people during the late pre-contact and early historic period. Following 
the King Philip's War in 1676, the surviving Massachuset were absorbed 
into Wampanoag communities. Consultation evidence, including 
anthropological, linguistic, oral and other traditions, provided by 
representatives of the Wampanoag Repatriation Confederacy indicates 
cultural affiliation between the Massachuset and the present-day 
Wampanoag culture.
    Officials of Pilgrim Hall Museum have determined that, pursuant to 
43 CFR 10.2 (d)(2)(ii), these 16 cultural items 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 an Native American individual. Officials of 
Pilgrim Hall Museum 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 Wampanoag Repatriation 
Confederation on behalf of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).
    This notice has been sent to officials of the Wampanoag 
Repatriation Confederation on behalf of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head 
(Aquinnah). Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes 
itself to be culturally affiliated with these objects should contact 
Karin J. Goldstein Curator, Pilgrim Hall Museum, 75 Court Street, 
Plymouth, MA 02360; telephone (508) 746-1620, ext. 4 before September 
3, 1998. Repatriation of these objects to the Wampanoag Repatriation 
Confederation on behalf of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) 
may begin after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
Dated: July 29, 1998.
Francis P. McManamon,
Departmental Consulting Archeologist,
Manager, Archeology and Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 98-20713 Filed 8-3-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F