[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 157 (Friday, August 14, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43720-43721]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-21884]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items in the Possession 
of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, 
Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM

AGENCY: National Park Service

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 the Museum of Indian Arts and 
Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM 
which meets the definition of ``unassociated funerary object'' under 
Section 2 of the Act.
    The nine cultural items consist of a shell ornament, a shell 
pendant, a group of worked ceramic disks, a quartz crystal, a calcite 
crystal, and a portion of a broken ceramic jar.
    Between 1915-1925, the R.S. Peabody Foundation of Archaeology, 
Phillips Academy, Andover, MA carried out legally authorized 
excavations at Pecos Pueblo (site LA 625). At an unknown

[[Page 43721]]

date, these cultural items were donated to the Laboratory of 
Anthropology by the R.S. Peabody Museum. Although these cultural items 
were removed from individual burials, the human remains with which they 
were originally associated cannot be located, and may not have been 
removed during the excavations.
    Excavation and museum records clearly indicate these cultural items 
were removed from specific burials of Native American individuals. 
Based on the archeological material from this site, Spanish Colonial 
documents, U.S. Government records, and oral history presented by the 
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, the Comanche Tribe, the Hopi Tribe, the 
Jicarilla Apache Tribe, the Kiowa Tribe, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, 
the Navajo Nation, the Pueblo of Cochiti, the Pueblo of Jemez, the 
Pueblo of Zuni, and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, this site dates 
from the Pueblo III period (ca. 1100 A.D.) to its abandonment in 1846. 
Although this site shares cultural affiliation with all the above 
listed tribes, based on oral history presented by the tribes, 
archeological evidence, historic documents, and a 1936 Congressional 
Act, this site is most closely affiliated with the Pueblo of Jemez.
    Officials of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of 
Anthropology have determined that, pursuant to 43 CFR 10.2 (d)(2)(ii), 
these nine 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 the Museum of Indian Arts and 
Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology have also determined that, pursuant 
to 43 CFR 10.2 (e), there is a relationship of shared group identity 
which can be reasonably traced between these items and the Pueblo of 
Jemez.
    This notice has been sent to officials of the Apache Tribe of 
Oklahoma, the Comanche Tribe, the Hopi Tribe, the Jicarilla Apache 
Tribe, the Kiowa Tribe, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, the Navajo Nation, 
the Pueblo of Cochiti, the Pueblo of Jemez, the Pueblo of Zuni, and the 
Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. Representatives of any other Indian 
tribe that believes itself to be culturally affiliated with these 
objects should contact Patricia House, Director, Museum of Indian Arts 
and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, Museum of New Mexico, P.O. Box 
2087, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2087; telephone (505) 827-6344 before 
September 14, 1998. Repatriation of these objects to the Pueblo of 
Jemez may begin after that date if no additional claimants come 
forward.
Dated: August 4, 1998.
Francis P. McManamon,
Departmental Consulting Archeologist,Manager, Archeology and 
Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 98-21884 Filed 8-13-98; 8:45 am]
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