[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 20, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15745-15746]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-6841]


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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, Interior.

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, that meets the 
definition of ``unassociated funerary object'' under Section 2 of the 
Act.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 43 CFR 10.2 (c). The 
determinations within this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of this 
cultural item. The National Park Service is not responsible for the 
determinations within this notice.
    The one cultural item is an iron hammer.
    Prior to 1869, human remains and associated funerary objects were 
collected by Acting Assistant Surgeon G.P. Hachenberg, U.S. Army, from 
a grave near Fort Randall, SD. In 1869, Surgeon Hachenberg donated the 
human remains and associated funerary objects to the Army Medical 
Museum (now the National Museum of Health and Medicine), Washington, 
DC. In 1876, the iron hammer, one of the associated funerary objects, 
was transferred to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology from 
the Army Medical Museum. Army Medical Museum records indicate that the 
grave was that of an Oglala Sioux man and his mother.
    The human remains and remaining associated funerary objects were 
transferred by the Army Medical Museum to the Smithsonian Institution. 
In 1998, these human remains were repatriated to the Oglala Sioux Tribe 
of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, from the National Museum 
of Natural History.
    Based on the 1998 repatriation, this cultural item is now 
considered an unassociated funerary object. Based on museum 
documentation and geographical evidence, this cultural item has been 
affiliated with the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, 
South Dakota.
    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 is 
believed, by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed from 
a specific burial site of an Native American individual. Officials of 
the

[[Page 15746]]

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology also have determined that, 
pursuant to 43 CFR 10.2 (e), there is a relationship of shared group 
identity that can be reasonably traced between this cultural item and 
the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. 
This notice has been sent to officials of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the 
Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. Representatives of any other 
Indian tribe that believes itself to be culturally affiliated with this 
unassociated funerary object should contact Barbara Isaac, Repatriation 
Coordinator, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 11 Divinity 
Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, telephone (617) 495-2254 before April 19, 
2001. Repatriation of this unassociated funerary object to the Oglala 
Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota may begin after 
that date if no additional claimants come forward.

    Dated: February 23, 2001.
John Robbins,
Assistant Director, Cultural Resources Stewardship and Partnerships.
[FR Doc. 01-6841 Filed 3-19-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F