[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 197 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54729-54730]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-27321]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items from the Pecos 
Valley, NM in the Possession of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and the Robert S. Peabody 
Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, 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 the Peabody Museum of Archaeology 
and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and the Robert S. 
Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA which meet 
the definition of ``unassociated funerary object'' under Section 2 of 
the Act.
    The 488 cultural items are ceramic vessels, ceramic fragments, 
medicine bundle contents, stone drills, bone flutes, shell tinklers, 
shell ornaments, shell necklaces, a concretion, bone whistles, a 
crystal, a bone button, effigies, pipes, bone beads, projectile points, 
stone scrapers, bead bracelets, turquoise pendants, shell pendants, 
worked shell, cordage, fossils, a clay ball, wrappings, bone tubes, 
bone knives, stone drills, pieces of obsidian, stone axes, polishing 
stones, hammerstones, shell fragments, flint chips, pebbles, wooden and 
copper crosses, a brush, lumps of paint, textiles, buffalo hair, 
moccasins, sandals, pieces of copper ore and lead ore, bone awls, and a 
stone pendant.
    Between 1915-1929, 33 of these cultural items were recovered during 
the excavations of Dick's Pueblo, Forked Lightning Pueblo, Loma 
Lothrop, and Rowe Pueblo conducted by Alfred Vincent Kidder under the 
auspices of Phillips Academy, Andover, MA.
    Between 1915-1929, 455 cultural items were recovered during the 
excavation of Pecos Pueblo conducted by Alfred Vincent Kidder under the 
auspices of Phillips Academy, Andover, MA.
    Excavation records indicate the human remains with whom these 
objects were associated were not collected. Based on archaeological 
evidence resulting from the work of A.V. Kidder (1958) and more recent 
research by Linda S. Cordell (1998), as well as expert opinion of 
traditional religious leaders at the Pueblo of Jemez, there is a 
preponderance of evidence that the pueblos of Dick's Ruin, Forked 
Lightning, Loma Lothrop, and Rowe Pueblo coalesced at Pecos Pueblo 
during the 14th century.
    Based on the ceramic types recovered from this site, Pecos Pueblo 
was occupied into the historic period 1300-1700. Historic records 
document occupation at the site until 1838 when the last inhabitants 
left the Pueblo and went to the Pueblo of Jemez. In 1936, an Act of 
Congress recognized the Pueblo of Jemez as a ``consolidation'' and 
``merger'' of the Pueblo of Pecos and the Pueblo of Jemez; this Act 
further

[[Page 54730]]

recognizes that all property, rights, titles, interests, and claims of 
both Pueblos were consolidated under the Pueblo of Jemez.
    Further evidence supporting a shared group identity between the 
Pecos and Jemez pueblos emerges in numerous aspects of present-day 
Jemez life. The 1992-1993 Pecos Ethnographic Project (unrelated to 
NAGPRA) states: ``[T]he cultural evidence of Pecos living traditions 
are 1) the official tribal government position of a Second Lieutenant/
Pecos Governor; 2) the possession of the Pecos Pueblo cane of office; 
3) the statue and annual feast day of Porcingula (Nuestra Senora de los 
Angeles) on August 2; 4) the Eagle Watchers' Society; 5) the migration 
of Pecos people in the early nineteenth century; 6) the knowledge of 
the Pecos language by a few select elders.'' (Levine 1994:2-3)
    Based on the above mentioned information, officials of the Peabody 
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology have determined that, pursuant to 43 CFR 10.2 (d)(2)(ii), 
these 488 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 Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology and the Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology 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 of Oklahoma, the Hopi Tribe, the Jicarilla 
Apache Tribe, the Kiowa Tribe, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, the Navajo 
Nation, Pueblo of Cochiti, the Pueblo of Jemez, Pueblo of Santo 
Domingo, 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 Barbara Issac, 
Repatriation Coordinator, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 
11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 022138; telephone (617) 495-2254; or 
James W. Bradley, Director, Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, 
Phillips Academy, Andover, MA 01810; telephone: (978) 749-4490 before 
November 12, 1998. Repatriation of these objects to the Pueblo of Jemez 
may begin after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
Dated: October 2, 1998.
Francis P. McManamon,
Departmental Consulting Archeologist,
Manager, Archeology and Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 98-27321 Filed 10-9-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F