[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 Brule Sicangu Sioux oral traditions and historical
documents indicate the Fort Randall area was part of the Brule Sicangu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]
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