[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 104 (Thursday, May 29, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30969-30970]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-11993]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, 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), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the 
completion of an inventory of human remains in the possession of the 
Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology at Phillips Academy, Andover, 
MA. The human remains were removed from Barnstable County, MA.
    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. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by Robert S. 
Peabody Museum of Archaeology professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Wampanoag Repatriation Confederation, on behalf 
of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe; Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) 
of Massachusetts; and Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, a non-
federally recognized Indian group.
    In 1951, a human remain representing a minimum of one individual 
was removed from the Rich Site (19-BN-163) in Barnstable County, MA, by 
Harold Curtis. The human remains were transferred at an unknown date to 
Ross Moffett and later donated to the Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology in 1969. No known individual was identified. No associated 
funerary objects are present.
    The isolated tooth documented in this inventory appears to come 
from the ``black earth and shell'' strata, an upper level of the site 
that is presumably a Middle Woodland[sol]Late Woodland occupation. The 
Rich site (19-BN-163) is one of several sites on the Outer Cape that 
reflects a pattern of year-round occupation and increasing sedentism in 
the late Middle Woodland to the Late Woodland (Massachusetts Historical 
Commission 1987 Historic and Archaeological Resources of Cape Cod and 
the Islands). In addition to the area around Truro, where the Rich site 
is located, other comparable cores on the Outer Cape include Wellfleet 
Harbor and the Nauset area in Eastham. In each site, there is a 
concentration of settlement not previously seen in the archeological 
record and strong evidence for year-round occupation. This includes 
floral and faunal data, as well as an array of site locations (and 
orientations) in each core area that fits the known range of seasonally 
exploited resources (Francis P. McManamon, ed. Chapters in the 
Archaeology of Cape Cod, Volumes I and II, 1984). Concomitant with this 
evidence for year-round occupation are mortuary data that indicate a 
significantly different pattern than evident on earlier sites. This 
includes the use of defined cemeteries, as well as ossuaries, which 
elsewhere in the Northeast are strongly

[[Page 30970]]

linked with sedentary, tribal people (McManamon, Bradley and Magennis, 
The Indian Neck Ossuary, 1986). This pattern appears to occur elsewhere 
along the southern end of the Gulf of Maine and along the southern New 
England coast to Narragansett Bay and possibly beyond, and first 
becomes visible during the late Middle Woodland and continues to 
characterize Wampanoag subsistence patterns throughout the Late 
Woodland[sol]Contact Periods.
    Distinct patterns of material culture and distribution for late 
Middle Woodland/Late Woodland sites such as the Rich site have been 
documented by many researchers (Ross Moffett, ``A Review of Cape Cod 
Archaeology,'' Bulletin of the Massachusetts Historical Society, XIX(1) 
1957; William Ritchie The Archaeology of Martha's Vineyard, 1969; 
McManamon 1984). ``[T]he first intensive peopling of the Cape region'' 
occurred during the Middle Woodland period and these sites were marked 
by ``nearly all of the earlier shell heap and black midden 
accumulations'' associated with grit-tempered pottery and stemmed 
points (Moffett 1957: 5). Although minor changes in ceramic form and 
decoration occur, current evidence indicates continuity rather than 
change in the material culture of late Middle Woodland through Late 
Woodland period sites (Ritchie 1969; McManamon 1984 I & II). The 
Massachusetts Historical Commission notes that the presence of Large 
Triangles is typical in Late Woodland Period assemblages (Michael J. 
Connolly, Historic and Archaeological Resources of Cape Cod and the 
Islands, 1987).
    Various European explorers and settlers documented the presence of 
Pokanoket (Wampanoag) people in southeastern Massachusetts, including 
Cape Cod during the late 16th and early 17th century. Historical 
sources used to identify Wellfleet inside Pamet[sol]Wampanoag territory 
include William Wood, New England Prospect,1865; William Bradford, Of 
Plymouth Plantation, 1987; and Daniel Gookin, Historical Collections of 
the Indians in New England, 1970. Contemporary scholarship continues to 
document the presence of Wampanoag[sol]Pamet people in this area 
including, Trigger, Bruce, ed., Handbook of North American Indians, 
v.15, 1978: 177-181, and Gibson, Susan B., ed., Burr's Hill: A 
Seventeenth Century Wampanoag Burial Ground in Warren, Rhode 
Island,1980. Wampanoag presence has also been demonstrated in the 
Massachusetts Historical Commissions two volumes on Cape Cod and 
Southeastern Massachusetts (Massachusetts Historical Commission 1982 
Historic and Archaeological Resources of Southeast Massachusetts, and 
1987 Historic and Archaeological Resources of Cape Cod and the 
Islands).
    Other critical sources that identify the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe as 
the present-day descendants of these people include Russell Peters, The 
Wampanoags of Mashpee, 1987; William S. Simmons, Spirit of the New 
England Tribes: Indian History and Folklore, 1620-1984, 1986; and Jack 
Campisi, The Mashpee Indians: Tribe on Trial, 1991. Writing about the 
numerous Wampanoag communities throughout southeastern Massachusetts, 
William Simmons explains, ``(F)rom the late seventeenth century to the 
early twentieth century, many of these enclaves either coalesced with 
others or simply died out, leaving two principal concentrations of 
Wampanoag at Gay Head on Martha's Vineyard and at Mashpee.'' Russell 
Peters' text is an important document from the perspective of the 
Mashpee community documenting their continued existence as a tribe.
    The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe; Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) 
of Massachusetts; Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, a non-federally 
recognized Indian group, and Wampanoag Repatriation Confederation, a 
non-federally recognized Indian group; provided verbal evidence during 
consultations for the Rich Site to have existed within the ancestral 
area of the Wampanoag.
    Officials of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology have 
found, based on the preponderance of the evidence, including 
consultation evidence and scholarship, that a shared group identity can 
be reasonably traced between the inhabitants of the Rich site (19-BN-
163) for the periods represented in the museum's collections and the 
present-day Wampanoag Tribes of Massachusetts.
    Officials of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remain 
described above represent the physical remains of one individual of 
Native American ancestry. Officials of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology 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 Native American human remains and the Mashpee 
Wampanoag Tribe and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) of 
Massachusetts. Furthermore, officials of the Robert S. Peabody Museum 
of Archaeology have determined that there is a cultural relationship 
between the Native American human remains and the Assonet Band of the 
Wampanoag Nation, a non-federally recognized Indian group.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Malinda 
S. Blustain, Director, Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, 
Phillips Academy, Andover, MA 01810, telephone (978) 749-4490, before 
June 30, 2008. Repatriation of the human remains to the Wampanoag 
Repatriation Confederation on behalf of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head 
(Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and Assonet Band 
of the Wampanoag Nation, a non-federally recognized Indian group may 
proceed after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology is responsible for 
notifying the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe; Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head 
(Aquinnah) of Massachusetts; Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, a 
non-federally recognized Indian group; and Wampanoag Repatriation 
Confederation, a non-federally recognized Indian group that this notice 
has been published.

    Dated: April 18, 2008
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-11993 Filed 5-28-08; 8:45 am]
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