[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 237 (Wednesday, December 10, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 68950]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-30567]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

    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 two cultural items are one bag of bark fragments and one box of 
brass kettle fragments.
    The cultural items were collected from West Warwick, Kent County, 
RI, by Dave Straight in 1957 and were donated to the Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology by the Massachusetts Archaeological Society 
through Maurice Robbins in the same year. Museum documentation 
indicates that the cultural items were recovered with human remains, 
which are not in the possession of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology 
and Ethnology.
    The interment from which the cultural items derive most likely 
dates to the postcontact period or later (post-A.D. 1500). Copper and 
brass kettles were European trade items, and therefore support a 
postcontact temporal context for the burial. In addition, the cultural 
items were described in museum documentation as ``Narragansett,'' and 
such a specific attribution suggests that the burial dates to the 
Historic period. The burial context indicates that the burial was of a 
Native American. Oral tradition and historical documentation indicate 
that West Warwick, RI, is within the aboriginal and historic homeland 
of the Narragansett people during the Contact period. The present-day 
tribe representing the Narragansett people is the Narragansett Indian 
Tribe of Rhode Island.
    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 a 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 Narragansett 
Indian Tribe of Rhode Island.
    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 January 9, 2004. 
Repatriation of the unassociated funerary objects to the Narragansett 
Indian Tribe of Rhode Island may proceed after that date if no 
additional claimants come forward.
    The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is responsible for 
notifying the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island that this 
notice has been published.

    Dated: October 29, 2003.
John Robbins,
Assistant Director, Cultural Resources.
[FR Doc. 03-30567 Filed 12-9-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-50-S