[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 225 (Wednesday, November 21, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58521-58522]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-29097]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion for Native American Human Remains 
and Associated Funerary Objects in the Possession of the Anchorage 
Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, AK, and in the Control of the 
U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 7 
Alaska Regional Office, Anchorage, AK

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is hereby given in accordance with provisions of the Native 
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 433 CFR 10.9, 
of the completion of an inventory of human remains and associated 
funerary objects in the possession of the Anchorage Museum of History 
and Art, Anchorage, AK, and in the control of the U.S. Department of 
the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 7 Alaska Regional 
Office, Anchorage, AK.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 43 CFR 10.2(2). The 
determination within this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of these Native 
American human remains and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations within this 
notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by Anchorage 
Museum of History and Art and Aleutian/Prifilof Islands Association, 
Inc., professional staff in consultation with representatives of the 
Native Village of Niolski (IRA) and Chaluka Corporation for the native 
village of Nikolski, Umnak Island, Alaska.
    In 1936 or 1938, human remains representing one individual were 
collected from a burial cave on Kagamil Island, AK, in what was then 
the Aleutian Islands Refuge, and is now the Aleutian Islands Unit of 
the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, by Alan C. May, a member 
of an authorized Smithsonian Institution expedition to the Aleutian and 
Commander Islands the direction of Dr. Ales Hrdicka. Expedition members 
often made personal collections after Dr. Hrdlicka selected items for 
the Smithsonian collections. In 1983, Mr. May donated the collection to 
the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. The human remains and 
associated funerary objects from kagamil Island in the Anchorage Museum 
of History and Art are associated with a much larger collection of 
human remains and funerary objects from Kagamil Island saves assembled 
by Dr. Hrdlicka during the 1936 and 1938 expeditions; this larger 
collection is in the control of the National Museum of Natural History, 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. No known individual was 
identified. The 126 associated funerary objects are 64 basketry 
fragments (some include feathers), 2 birdskin garments, I mukluk 
fragment, 1 bentwood dish, 3 wooden bowls, 2 wooden container 
fragments, 9 unidentified wood items (some include cordage, sinew, 
twine, skin, and hair), 4 stone abraders, 1 miniature yo-yo, 26 rapes, 
5 lines, 2 grass bundles, 4 fur/skin strips and fur fragments, 1 set of 
bird wings, and 1 possible baleen item.
    There are no radiocarbon dates for any of the Kagmail Island cave 
collections. The consensus among anthropologists, however, is that the 
collections date to the Late Prehistoric period, possibly no earlier 
than 500-1000 B.P. The Aleut practice of cave burials existed into the 
Protohistoric period in the Aleutian Islands but was not practiced 
after circa A.D. 1760, During the Russian and American periods, 
explorers, priest and others recorded Aleut knowledge about burial cave 
practices and Aleut beliefs about burial sites.
    The present-day Aleut cultural affiliation with prehistoric 
populations is evident in the cultural continuity of artifact 
assemblage content and artifact form throughout the Aleutian region 
since the earliest occupation 8700 B.P. Biological data indicate is 
situ development of Palco-Aleuts to Neo-Aleuts after the Aleut-Eskimo 
Inguistic stock divergence some 9000 years B.P. Glottochronological 
evidence indicates that the Aleut language diverged from Eskimoid 
languages between 4000 and 4600 B.P.
    In the 1790s, the Aleut villages of the Islands of the Four 
Mountains, which includes Kagamil Island, and Aleut villages of western 
Umnak Island were at war. At the end of that conflict, the remaining 
villagers from the Islands of the Four Mountains were moved by the 
Russian skipper Sarychev to villages in western Umnak Island, During 
the 19th century those villages consolidated into

[[Page 58522]]

one village, which is the present-day Nikolski.
    Based on the above-mentioned information, officials of the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service have determined that, pursuant to 433 CFR 
10.2(d)(1), the human remains listed above represent the physical 
remains of one individual of Native American ancestry. Officials of the 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also have determined that, pusaunt to 43 
CFR 10.2(d)(2), the 126 objects listed above 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. Lastly, officials 
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have determined that, pursuant to 
43 CFR 10.2(e), there is a relationship of shared group identify that 
can be reasonably traced between these Native American human remains 
and associated funerary objects and the Native Village of Nikolski 
(IRA) and Chaluka Corporation.
    This notice has been sent to officials of the Aleutian/Priblof 
Islands Association, Inc., Native Village of Nikolski (IRA), and 
Chaluka Corporation. Repriation of any other Indian tribe that believes 
itself to be culturally affiliated with these human remains and 
associated funerary objects should contact Debra Corbett, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, 1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99503, telephone 
(907) 786-3399, before December 21, 2001. Repatriation of the human 
remains and associated funerary objects to the Native Village of 
Nikolski (IRA) and Chaluka Corporation may begin after that date if no 
additional claimants come forward.

    Dated: October 15, 2001.
John Robbins,
Assistant Director, Cultural Resources Stewardship and Partnerships.
[FR Doc. 01-29097 Filed 11-20-01; 8:45 am]
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