[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 65 (Friday, April 4, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16549-16550]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-8193]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent To Repatriate a Cultural Item: Field Museum of 
Natural History, Chicago, IL

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3005, Sec. 7, of 
the intent to repatriate a cultural item in the possession of the Field 
Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, that meets the definition of 
``cultural patrimony'' under 25 U.S.C. 3001.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003, Sec. 
5(d)(3). The determinations within this notice are the sole 
responsibility of the museum, institution, or Federal agency that has 
control of these cultural items. The National Park Service is not 
responsible for the determinations within this notice.
    The cultural item is a wampum belt, which is composed of purple 
beads with white beads forming the design of four pairs of diamonds. It 
is interwoven with buckskin and has fringe at the ends. The wampum belt 
measures 3 feet 8\1/8\ inches long without the fringe.
    The Field Museum of Natural History purchased the wampum belt in 
1900 from Henry Hysen of Wisconsin. The Field Museum of Natural History 
assessioned the wampum belt into its collection the same year (catalog 
number 68567). Museum records indicate that Mr. Hysen purchased the 
wampum belt ``from the owner who lived on the Stock Ridge Reservation, 
one of the Brotherton Indians whose family had held the belt since it 
was sent to them by Chief Black Hawk as a message to the tribes of the 
Michigan and Wisconsin Indians assembled at Travers bay to hold them in 
control during his warfare.'' A separate catalog entry, that is neither 
attributed nor dated, identifies the belt as the Peace and Friendship 
Belt sent by ``Black Hawk war chief of the Sauk tribe of Indians in the 
year A.D. 1832 to the Ottawa tribe, residing near Traverse Bay, 
Michigan, asking them to remain neutral in the war which Black Hawk was 
about to wage against the American Government.'' It further provides 
that the belt had ``been kept in the family of the old chief Ta-ko-se-
gun and by his son-in-law presented to G.T. Wendell.''
    The wampum belt is culturally affiliated with the Brotherton 
Indians. Expert opinion submitted to the Field Museum of Natural 
History by the Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin supports the 
finding that any Brotherton Indian living on the Stockbridge 
Reservation at the time the wampum belt was acquired would have been 
considered a full member of the Stockbridge tribe (now called the 
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin). The determination of cultural 
affiliation was also confirmed by the Field Museum of Natural History's 
consulting with an outside expert familiar with wampum belts of this 
time period. The Field Museum of Natural History has determined that 
the large size, composition, and design of the wampum belt indicates 
that it is an important ``historical'' belt, meaning that the belt was 
a record of a historical event marked and remembered by the tribe, and 
as such would qualify as an

[[Page 16550]]

object having ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance 
central to the Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin. Consultation 
evidence presented by representatives of the Stockbridge Munsee 
Community, Wisconsin also indicates that no individual had or has the 
right to alienate a wampum belt.
    Officials of the Field Museum of Natural History have determined 
that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, Sec. 2(3)(D), this cultural item has 
ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the 
Native American group or culture itself, rather than property owned by 
an individual. Officials of the Field Museum of Natural History also 
have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, Sec. 2(2), there is a 
relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced 
between the wampum belt and the Brotherton Indians as full members of 
the Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin.
    Officials of the Field Museum of Natural History assert that, 
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, Sec. 2(13), the Field Museum of Natural 
History has right of possession of the wampum belt. Officials of the 
Field Museum of Natural History also recognize that the wampum belt is 
significant to the Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin and have 
reached an agreement with the Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin 
that allows the Field Museum of Natural History to return the wampum 
belt to the tribe voluntarily, pursuant to the compromise of claim 
provisions of the Field Museum of Natural History's repatriation 
policy.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with this object of cultural patrimony should 
contact Jonathan Haas, MacArthur Curator of North American 
Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore 
Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, telephone (312) 665-7829, before May 5, 2003. 
Repatriation of this object of cultural patrimony to the Stockbridge 
Munsee Community, Wisconsin may proceed after that date if no 
additional claimants come forward.
    The Field Museum of Natural History is responsible for notifying 
the Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin (a nonfederally recognized Indian 
group); Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan; 
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan; Sac & Fox Nation 
of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska; Sac & Fox Nation, Oklahoma; Sac & 
Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa; and Stockbridge Munsee Community, 
Wisconsin that this notice has been published.

    Dated: February 28, 2003.
John Robbins,
Assistant Director, Cultural Resources Stewardship and Partnerships.
[FR Doc. 03-8193 Filed 4-3-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-M