[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 71 (Wednesday, April 14, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Page 18447]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-9325]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items in the Possession 
of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, MA

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 
a cultural item in the possession of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology 
and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA which meets the 
definition of ``unassociated funerary objects'' under Section 2 of the 
Act.
    The eleven cultural items are ceramic vessels and ceramic 
fragments.
    In 1929, nine of these cultural items were recovered from Pecos 
Pueblo by William Claflin under the auspices of Phillips Academy, 
Andover, MA. In 1985, William Claflin donated these nine cultural items 
to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
    Between 1915-1929, two of these cultural items were recovered from 
Pecos Pueblo by Alfred Vincent Kidder under the auspices of Phillips 
Academy, Andover, MA. In 1936, Phillips Academy donated these two 
cultural items to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
    Excavations records indicate that the human remains with whom these 
eleven cultural items were associated were not collected. Based on the 
ceramic types recovered from this site, Pecos Pueblo was occupied into 
the historic period (1300-1838). 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 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) thet 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 have determined that, pursuant to 
43 CFR 10.2 (d)(2)(ii), these eleven 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 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 human remains should contact Barbara 
Issac, Repatriation Coordinator, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 022138; telephone (617) 495-
2254, before May 14, 1999. Repatriation of these objects to the Pueblo 
of Jemez may begin after that date if no additional claimants come 
forward.
Dated: April 8, 1999.
Francis P. McManamon,
Departmental Consulting Archeologist,
Manager, Archeology and Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 99-9325 Filed 4-13-99; 8:45 am]
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