[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 230 (Monday, December 1, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67212-67213]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-29769]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

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), 43 CFR 10.8 (f), of the 
intent to repatriate cultural items in the possession of the Peabody 
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 
that meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects 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 (d)(3). 
The determinations within this notice are the sole responsibility of 
the museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the 
cultural items. The National Park Service is not responsible for the 
determinations within this notice.
    The three cultural items are two brass tubes and one string of 
shell beads.
    The two brass tubes were collected by J.V.C. Smith in 1831 from 
Fall River, Bristol County, MA, and were donated to the Peabody Museum 
of Archaeology and Ethnology by F. Kneeland in 1886. Museum 
documentation indicates that the brass tubes were recovered from a 
grave. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is not in 
possession of the human remains from this burial.
    The interment most likely dates to the Historic/Contact period 
(post-A.D. 1500). According to the Peabody Museum Annual Report of 
1887, the human remains from this grave site were wrapped in several 
layers of braided or woven bark-cloth with an outer layer of cedar 
bark. Woven mats and bark were commonly used in Wampanoag burials 
during the Late Woodland period and later (post-A.D. 1000). Sheet brass 
and brass objects were European trade items, and therefore indicate a 
postcontact temporal context.
    At an unknown date, a string of shell beads was recovered from a 
grave site in Bridgewater, Plymouth County, MA. The string of shell 
beads was donated to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 
1899 by H.W. Hatch. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is 
not in possession of the human remains from this burial.

[[Page 67213]]

    The interment most likely dates to the Historic/Contact period 
(post-A.D. 1500). According to museum documentation, the shell beads 
were found with ``porcelain beads,'' which are not in the possession of 
the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. True porcelain beads 
do not appear in historic contexts until the 19th century, although 
beads made from money cowry shell (C. moneta) were called 
``porcelain,'' and were imported and traded by Europeans before this 
time. Even if these beads are of white glass rather than shell, glass 
beads were introduced by Europeans as trade items in the 17th century, 
and would also support a postcontact date.
    Oral tradition and historical documentation indicate that Fall 
River and Bridgewater, MA, are within the aboriginal and historic 
homeland of the Wampanoag Nation. The present-day Indian tribe and 
groups that are most closely affiliated with the Wampanoag Nation are 
the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, Mashpee 
Wampanoag Indian Tribe (a nonfederally recognized Indian group), and 
Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation Tribe (a nonfederally recognized 
Indian group).
    Officials of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(B), the cultural items 
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 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 also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), 
there is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably 
traced between the unassociated funerary objects and the Wampanoag 
Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, and that there is a 
cultural relationship between the unassociated funerary objects and 
Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe (a nonfederally recognized Indian group) 
and Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation (a nonfederally recognized 
Indian group).
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should 
contact Patricia Capone, Repatriation Coordinator, Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, 
Cambridge, MA 02138, telephone (617) 496-3702, before December 31, 
2003. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary objects to the 
Wampanoag Repatriation Confederation on behalf of the Wampanoag Tribe 
of Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe 
(a nonfederally recognized Indian group), and Assonet Band of the 
Wampanoag Nation (a nonfederally recognized Indian group) may proceed 
after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is responsible for 
notifying the Wampanoag Repatriation Confederation, Wampanoag Tribe of 
Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe (a 
nonfederally recognized Indian group), and Assonet Band of the 
Wampanoag Nation (a nonfederally recognized Indian group) that this 
notice has been published.

    Dated: October 27, 2003.
John Robbins,
Assistant Director, Cultural Resources.
[FR Doc. 03-29769 Filed 11-28-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-50-S