[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 136 (Friday, July 16, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Page 38470]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-18124]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item in the Possession 
of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 
Cambridge, 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 
a cultural item in the possession of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology 
and Ethnology which meets the definition of ``unassociated funerary 
object'' under Section 2 of the Act.
    The one cultural item is an iron spoon.
    In 1869, this spoon was excavated from a burial by George 
Hachenberg of the United States Army on behalf of the U.S. Army Medical 
Museum. In 1876, this iron spoon was gifted to the Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology by the U.S. Army Medical Museum.
    Primary accession and catalog documents for this iron spoon, 
currently on file at the Smithsonian, indicate this cultural item was 
removed from a Brule Indian grave located 15 miles up the east bank of 
the Missouri River from Fort Randall Dakota Territory in present-day 
South Dakota. Catalog records indicate the human remains with whom this 
cultural item was associated are in the possession of the Smithsonian 
Institution. Brule Sicangu Sioux oral traditions and historical 
documents indicate the Fort Randall area was part of the Brule Sicangu 
Sioux traditional territory during the time of this burial in the mid-
19th century. The attribution of such a specific cultural affiliation 
to the human remains by the collector, as well as the presence of an 
iron object indicate the interment post-dates sustained contact between 
indigenous groups and Europeans beginning in the 18th century. Based on 
this evidence, the age of this cultural item and the occupation of the 
area by the Brule Sicangu Sioux coincide. The Brule Sicangu Sioux are 
represented by the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule 
Reservation and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian 
Reservation. Because the human remains associated with this cultural 
item are in the possession of the Smithsonian Institution, which 
operates under its own repatriation statute, this cultural item is 
considered an unassociated funerary object.
    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), this one cultural item is 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 this item and the 
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation and the Rosebud 
Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
    This notice has been sent to officials of the Lower Brule Sioux 
Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the 
Rosebud Indian Reservation. 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 before August 16, 1999. Repatriation of these 
objects to the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation 
and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation may begin 
after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
Dated: July 9, 1999.
Francis P. McManamon,
Departmental Consulting Archeologist,
Manager, Archeology and Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 99-18124 Filed 7-15-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F