[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 15 (Wednesday, January 23, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3996-3997]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-1112]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM and Southwest 
Museum of the American Indian, Autry National Center, Los Angeles, CA; 
Correction

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice; correction.

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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 control of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 
Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM and in the possession of 
the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, Autry National Center, Los 
Angeles, CA. The human remains and associated funerary objects were 
removed from Tularosa Cave, 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 Native 
American human remains and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.
    This notice supersedes the Notice of Inventory Completion 
previously published in the Federal Register of October 31, 2007 (FR 
Doc. E7-21379, pages 61674-61675). This notice corrects the controller 
of the human remains and associated funerary objects, pursuant to 43 
CFR 10.2(a)(3)(ii), as review of the field records and maps associated 
with the excavation of the site, indicates that the Tularosa Cave is 
located on Federal lands that are administered by the U.S. Department 
of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM. 
Therefore, the Southwest Museum of American Indian does not have 
control of the human remains and associated funerary objects. This 
notice also corrects the consulted tribes and the cultural affiliation 
of the human remains and associated funerary objects from what had 
previously been published by the Southwest Museum of the American 
Indian.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest 
professional staff in consultation with the Hopi Tribe of Arizona; 
Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, 
New Mexico.
    In 1905, human remains representing a minimum of one individual 
were removed from Tularosa Cave in Catron County, NM, by Mr. Peter 
Goddard Gates (P.G. Gates) as part of the Museum-Gates Expedition, a 
collaborative excavation funded by the United States National Museum, 
now the Smithsonian Institution, and amateur archeologist, Mr. Gates. 
On an unknown date, Mr. Gates transferred the human remains into the 
possession of the California Institute of Technology as part of the 
larger P.G. Gates Collection. In 1946, the California Institute of 
Technology loaned the P.G. Gates Collection to the Southwest Museum of 
the American Indian. In 2006, the California Institute of Technology 
transferred possession of the P.G. Gates Collection to the Southwest 
Museum of the American Indian. No known individual was identified. The 
four associated funerary objects are one olivella shell bracelet, two 
mats made of rush, and one fragment of a woven textile of unknown use.
    Archeological evidence of both material culture and geographic 
settlement patterns indicate that Tularosa Cave is an Upland Mogollon 
site that was inhabited between 300 A.D. - 1300 A.D. Abandonment of 
nearly all Mogollon homeland sites before the protohistoric period 
suggests a possible population migration into neighboring Puebloan 
territory. 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 Pueblo of 
Acoma, New Mexico; Hopi Tribe of Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico. Villages had pithouses or pueblo-style houses. 
Most archeological evidence linking Upland Mogollon to present-day 
tribes rely on ceramics, which suggest the early establishment of 
brownware producing groups. Based on material culture, architecture, 
and site organization, the Tularosa Cave has been identified as rock 
shelter occupied between A.D. 500-1300. Present-day descendents of the 
Upland Mogollon are the Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; Hopi Tribe of 
Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation. Oral traditions 
presented by representatives of the Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; the 
Hopi Tribe of Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New 
Mexico support cultural affiliation.
    Officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 
Gila River National Forest have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 
3001 (9-10), the human remains described above represent the physical 
remains of one individual of Native American ancestry. Officials of the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila River National 
Forest also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(A), 
the four 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 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila River National 
Forest 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 Native American human remains and associated funerary 
objects and the Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and 
Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico.

[[Page 3997]]

    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Dr. Frank E. Wozniak, NAGPRA Coordinator, 
Southwestern Region, USDA Forest Service, 333 Broadway Boulevard SE, 
Albuquerque, NM 87102, telephone (505) 842-3238, before February 22, 
2008. Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary objects 
to the Hopi Tribe of 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 Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Mescalero 
Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico; Ohkay Owingeh, 
New Mexico (formerly the Pueblo of San Juan); Pueblo of Acoma, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico; Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico; 
Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico; Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico; Pueblo of 
Nambe, New Mexico; Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico; Pueblo of Pojoaque, 
New Mexico; Pueblo of San Felipe, New Mexico; Pueblo of San Ildefonso, 
New Mexico; Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Ana, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santo Domingo, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico; Pueblo of Tesuque, New Mexico; 
Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New 
Mexico that this notice has been published.

    Dated: November 26, 2007
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-1112 Filed 1-22-08; 8:45 am]
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