[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 206 (Wednesday, October 26, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61837-61838]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-21331]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item: U.S. Department 
of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM, 
and 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, of the intent 
to repatriate a cultural item in the control of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM, and 
in the possession of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, 
that meets the definition of ``unassociated funerary object'' under 25 
U.S.C. 3001. The cultural item was removed from the Gila National 
Forest, Catron County, NM.
    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 in 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 in this notice.
    The cultural item is a small San Francisco Red pottery jar.
    A detailed assessment of the cultural item was made by the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest and the 
Field Museum of Natural History professional staff in consultation with 
the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of 
the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico.
    In 1954, the cultural item was removed from Valley View Pueblo in 
the Gila National Forest, Catron County, NM, during legally authorized 
excavations and collected by Dr. Paul S. Martin of the Field Museum of 
Natural History, Chicago, IL. In August 2005, the Field Museum of 
Natural History, Chicago, IL, found an unassociated funerary object 
among its collections that had been taken from Gila National Forest, 
Catron County, NM, by Dr. Martin. Unassociated funerary objects removed 
from Gila National Forest, Catron County, NM, were previously published 
in the Federal Register of June 1, 2005, FR Doc. 05-10805, page 31510, 
and in a subsequently corrected Notice of Intent to Repatriate 
published in the Federal Register on August 3, 2005, FR Doc. 05-15322, 
page 44687.
    Material culture, architecture, and site organization indicate that 
Valley View Pueblo is an Upland Mogollon site occupied between A.D. 550 
and 1150. The territory of the Upland Mogollon stretched from south-
central Arizona to south-central New Mexico. The Upland Mogollon 
territories are claimed, currently inhabited, or used by the Hopi 
Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico. Most archeological evidence linking Upland 
Mogollon to present-day Indian tribes relies on ceramics that suggest 
cultural connections between these groups. Present-day descendants of 
the Upland Mogollon are the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New 
Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico. Oral 
traditions preserved in the ethnographic literature and presented by 
representatives of the Hopi Tribe,

[[Page 61838]]

Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico support cultural affiliation.

    Officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 
Gila National Forest have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 
(3)(B), the cultural item described above is 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 is believed, 
by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed from a 
specific burial site of an Native American individual. Officials of the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest 
have also 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 object and the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; 
Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, 
New Mexico.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary object should 
contact Dr. Frank E. Wozniak, NAGPRA Coordinator, Southwestern Region, 
USDA Forest Service, 333 Broadway Blvd., SE, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 
telephone (505) 842-3238, before November 25, 2005. Repatriation of the 
unassociated funerary object to the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of 
Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico 
may proceed after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National 
Forest is responsible for notifying the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of 
Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico 
that this notice has been published.

    Dated: September 12, 2005.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 05-21331 Filed 10-25-05; 8:45 am]
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