[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 80 (Friday, April 25, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20406-20407]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-10029]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Defense, Army 
Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR

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. 3003, of the 
completion of an inventory of human remains and associated funerary 
objects in the possession of the U.S. Department of Defense, Army Corps 
of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR. The human remains and 
associated funerary objects were removed from the Old Town Umatilla 
site (35 UM 1/35 UM 35), Umatilla County, OR.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003(d)(3). The 
determinations within this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the 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 and associated funerary 
objects was made by the Army Corps of Engineers staff and the Cultural 
Resources Protection Program of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla 
Indian Reservation, Oregon in consultation with representatives of the 
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon.The Old 
Town Umatilla site is located in Umatilla County, OR, on the south 
shoreline of the Columbia River, upstream from its confluence with the 
Umatilla River. The site is also in the project area of the John Day 
Dam, which is located in north-central Oregon and south-central 
Washington. John Day Dam project lands extend from the confluence of 
the Columbia River and the John Day River upstream to Umatilla, OR.
    The Old Town Umatilla site (35 UM 1/35 UM 35) was first occupied in 
470 B.C. and is considered to be a prehistoric and historic Umatilla 
village. The site served as a major winter village of the Umatilla 
Indians during late prehistoric times, and includes a cemetery that 
dates from approximately 500 B.C. to A.D. 1700. The site lies within 
the traditional lands of the present-day Confederated Tribes of the 
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of the 
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon was established by an 1855 treaty, 
and consists of three tribes: Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla. All 
three tribes belong to the Sahaptin language group, each tribe's 
speaking a separate dialect of Sahaptin. Historically, these tribes 
occupied over 6 million acres of land in southeastern Washington and 
northeastern Oregon. The Umatilla reservation and ceded lands roughly 
include the area bounded by the Columbia and Snake Rivers on the north 
to Willow Creek on the west to Tucannon River on the east.
    The Old Town Umatilla site has a long excavation history. In l948, 
the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys first recorded the late prehistoric 
cemetery and early historic site as 35 UM 1. The site was excavated in 
1965 by the University of Oregon in conjunction with reservoir salvage 
for the John Day Dam, and was redesignated as 35 UM 35, the Old Town 
Umatilla site. The site was excavated by the Mid-Columbia 
Archaeological Society and the University of Idaho from 1970 through 
1975, Wildesen and Associates in 1984, Heritage Research Associates in 
1986, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 
Oregon in preparation for construction of a wastewater treatment 
facility in 1998.
    The excavations removed over 230 human burials and approximately 
38,000 associated funerary objects. In l976, at the request of the 
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon, the 
Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District reinterred approximately 230 
human burials and associated funerary objects in a cemetery near 
Mission, OR. The human remains and associated funerary objects were 
among those excavated by the Mid-Columbia Archaeological Society and 
University of Idaho in the 1970s. In June 2000, the remains of two 
individuals and two associated funerary objects removed during the l965 
University of Oregon excavation were repatriated to the Confederated 
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon by the University of 
Oregon Museum of Natural History. Human remains from the l998 
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon 
investigation were reburied on-site when encountered.
    In 1999, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian 
Reservation, Oregon requested that the Mid-Columbia Archaeological 
Society collections from 35 UM 1/35 UM 35 excavated during the 1970s be 
placed in the tribe's facility

[[Page 20407]]

so that tribal staff could analyze the materials to identify human 
remains. In 2001, Cultural Resources Protection Program staff of the 
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon examined 
faunal remains and artifacts from 35 UM 1/35 UM 35. Their analysis 
identified approximately 111 human bones, representing a minimum of one 
individual and one additional partial human burial among the faunal 
collections. Based on associated artifacts these individuals have been 
determined to be Native American. Also, 20,697 artifacts are identified 
as associated funerary objects based on their proximity to the skeletal 
remains as described in available records. The associated funerary 
objects are 4,452 stone tools; 4,129 shells; 2 bottles of uncounted 
dentalium shells; 3,997 cobble choppers, hammerstones, and pecking 
stones; 2,805 projectile points; 2,075 flakes and cores; 784 shell 
beads; 456 bone beads, bangles, and pendants; 285 elk tooth beads; 247 
bone punches, awls, and needles; 227 fragments of worked bone; 168 
basalt projectile points; 163 net weights, sinkers, and anchors; 155 
obsidian projectile points; 70 animal teeth; 94 pestles, metates, 
mauls, and milling stones; 55 stone beads and pendants; 53 ochre 
fragments; 47 antler or bone wedges; 47 bone harpoon points or guards; 
31 bird talons or animal claws; 37 arrow shaft smoothers or abraders; 
27 bone pieces; 25 antlers; 22 hopper mortars; 19 obsidian nose pieces 
and crescents; 13 gaming balls and bola stones; 9 raw mineral fragments 
(mica, concretion, sandstone, graphite, and copper); 8 slate 
whetstones; 4 charcoal fragments; 3 carved stone effigies; 3 worked 
historic glass tools; 3 pipe bowls or stems; 3 smoothing stones; 2 horn 
digging tools or digging stick handles; 2 stone bowl fragments; 1 celt; 
1 steatite ring fragment; 1 incised pumice paint pot; 1 bird bone 
whistle; 1 coprolite; 1 nutshell; and 169 unidentified tools. The human 
remains and associated funerary objects have been cataloged under 
various catalog and box numbers, and are currently on loan to the 
Cultural Resources Protection Program of the Confederated Tribes of the 
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon.
    Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, the human remains 
described above represent the physical remains of a minimum number of 
two individuals of Native American ancestry. Officials of the Army 
Corps of Engineers, Portland District also have determined that, 
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, the 20,697 objects described 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 Army Corps of Engineers, Portland 
District have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, there is a 
relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced 
between the Native American human remains and associated funerary 
objects and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 
Oregon.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Ms. Gail Celmer, NAGPRA Coordinator, 
Environmental Resources Branch, U.S. Department of Defense, Army Corps 
of Engineers, Portland District, P. O. Box 2946, Portland, OR 97208-
2946, telephone (503) 808-4762, before May 27, 2003. Repatriation of 
the human remains and associated funerary objects to the Confederated 
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon may proceed after 
this date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, is responsible for 
notifying the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 
Oregon that this notice has been published.

    Dated: March 27, 2003
John Robbins,
Assistant Director, Cultural Resources.
[FR Doc. 03-10029 Filed 4-24-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-S