[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 117 (Tuesday, June 17, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34323-34324]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-13577]



[[Page 34323]]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Defense, Army 
Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR, and Oregon State 
University Department of Anthropology, Corvallis, OR

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 and associated funerary 
objects in the control of the U.S. Department of Defense, Army Corps of 
Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR, and in the possession of 
the Oregon State University Department of Anthropology, Corvallis, OR. 
The human remains and associated funerary objects were removed from 
sites on Army Corps of Engineers land within the Lost Creek Lake Dam 
project area on the Rogue River, Jackson County, OR.
    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.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by Oregon State 
University Department of Anthropology and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 
Portland District professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and 
Siuslaw Indians of Oregon; Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde 
Community of Oregon; Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, 
Oregon; Coquille Tribe of Oregon; Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians of 
Oregon; Klamath Tribes, Oregon (formerly the Klamath Indian Tribe of 
Oregon); and Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma.
    Native American cultural items described in this notice were 
excavated under Antiquities Act permits by the Oregon State University 
Department of Anthropology, Corvallis, OR, on Army Corps of Engineers 
project lands. Following excavations at the sites described below, and 
under the provisions of the permits, the Oregon State University 
Department of Anthropology was allowed to retain the collections for 
preservation.
    In 1972, human remains representing a minimum of one individual 
were removed from site 35-JA-23, also known as the Fawn Butte Spring 
Site, Jackson County, OR, during excavations by Oregon State University 
prior to construction of the proposed Lost Creek Lake Dam. The 
excavations were conducted on Fawn Butte above an ephemeral branch of 
Lost Creek, a tributary of the Rogue River. No known individual was 
identified. The 147 associated funerary objects are 1 chalcedony knife, 
1 projectile point, 1 projectile point tip fragment, 5 bifaces, 1 end 
scraper, 1 graver, 1 burin, 1 burin-like flake tool, 6 utilized flakes, 
3 cores, 3 core reduction fragments, 119 debitage flakes and fragments, 
1 unidentified lithic item, 1 bag of wood fragments, and 2 bags of 
burial dirt.
    Site 35-JA-23 is a multicomponent village that is believed to have 
been occupied as early as 1200 years B.P. to approximately A.D. 1800. 
Based on the location of the human remains within the site and the 
associated artifacts, the individual has been determined to be Native 
American.
    In 1972-1973, human remains representing a minimum of two 
individuals were removed from site 35-JA-25, also known as the Far 
Hills Ranch Site, Jackson County, OR, during excavations conducted by 
Oregon State University prior to construction of the proposed Lost 
Creek Lake Dam. The excavations were conducted below the mouth of Long 
Branch Creek on the west bank of the Rogue River. No known individuals 
were identified. The 19 associated funerary objects are 8 shell beads, 
5 olivella beads, 1 pine nut bead, 2 shell pendants, 1 ulna awl, and 2 
lithic fragments.
    Site 35-JA-25 is a small cemetery and village dating from before 
A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1700. The cemetery appears to have been used prior to 
A.D. 1400 and the village was primarily occupied between A.D. 1500 and 
A.D. 1700. Ninety-two additional human burials located on private 
property at the site were exhumed at an undetermined date prior to 
World War II, during construction of private ranch facilities, and re-
interred approximately five miles to the north in Trail, OR. Based on 
the location of the human remains within the site and the associated 
artifacts, both individuals removed have been determined to be Native 
American.
    Ethnographic records suggest the areas surrounding sites 35-JA-23 
and 35-JA-25 were likely occupied by the Takelma and possibly Southern 
Molala bands during the early Contact period. However, overlapping 
territories, shared use of resource gathering areas, possible 
territorial realignments through time and, ultimately, tribal 
conglomerations and mergers resulting from mid-19th Century treaty 
negotiations with the U.S. Government, make determination of the sites' 
cultural affiliation uncertain. The sites described above are within or 
near the traditional lands of the present-day Confederated Tribes of 
Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon; Confederated Tribes 
of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon; Confederated Tribes of the 
Siletz Reservation, Oregon; Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians of Oregon; 
Klamath Tribes, Oregon; and Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma. The Coquille Tribe 
of Oregon has indicated both sites are located outside of their 
ancestral territory.
    The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw 
Indians of Oregon traditionally inhabited the headwaters, valleys and 
estuaries of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Rivers along the 
central and south-central Oregon coast. The tribes spoke diverse 
dialects within the Hanis, Milluk, Athapascan, Kuitsch, and Siuslaw 
language groups. The tribes have been operating under a confederated 
government since signing a treaty with the U.S. Government in 1855. 
Many tribal members were removed to the Siletz Reservation, the Alsea 
sub agency, and other federal military encampments along the south-
central Oregon coast during the mid to late-19th Century. The 
Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of 
Oregon were terminated from federal recognition in 1954 and restored in 
1984.
    The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, 
include at least 26 tribes and bands whose ancestral homelands span 
across western Oregon, southwestern Washington and northern California. 
The Grand Ronde tribes and bands include the Rogue River, Umpqua, 
Chasta, Kalapuya, Molala, Clackamas, Salmon River, Tillamook, and 
Nestucca, as well as other smaller groups. At the time of contact, the 
individual groups spoke 30 dialects of the Athapascan, Chinookan, 
Kalapuyan, Takelman, Molalan, Sahaptin, Salishan, and Shastan language 
families. In 1856-1857, the U.S. Government forcibly relocated the 
Grand Ronde peoples to the Grand Ronde Reservation at the headwaters of 
the South Yamhill River in Yamhill and Polk Counties, OR. The 
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon were first 
incorporated in 1935, terminated from federal recognition in 1954, and 
restored with tribal recognition in 1983.

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    The Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon, are a 
confederation of 30 bands whose ancestral territory ranged along the 
entire Oregon coast and Coast Range, inland to the main divide of the 
Cascade Range and south to the Rogue River watershed. The principal 
tribes include the Clatsop, Chinook, Klickitat, Molala, Kalapuya, 
Tillamook, Alsea, Siuslaw/Lower Umpqua, Coos, Coquille, Upper Umpqua, 
Tututni, Chetco, Tolowa, Takelma or Upper Rogue River, Galice/
Applegate, and Shasta. The ancestors of the confederated tribes spoke 
at least 10 different base languages, many with strong dialectic 
divisions even within the same language. In general, five linguistic 
stocks - Salish, Yakonan, Kusan, Takelman, and Athapascan - are 
represented by the tribes. The tribes were forcibly removed from their 
homelands in 1855 by the U.S. Government and placed on the Siletz and 
Grand Ronde reservations. After having their tribal status terminated 
from federal recognition in 1954, the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz 
Reservation, Oregon were officially restored in 1977.
    The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians of Oregon traditionally 
occupied the rugged, forested territory extending from the Cow Creek 
watershed in the Coast Range to the North and South Forks of the Umpqua 
River along the western slope of the Cascades. They spoke Takelma, a 
language in the Takelman-Kalapuyan division of the Penutian language 
stock. After treaty negotiations with the U.S. Government in 1853 led 
to subsequent hostilities and the removal of many tribal members to the 
Grand Ronde Reservation on the Yamhill River, a large group of Umpqua 
sought safety in remote areas of their traditional homeland. The Cow 
Creek Band of Umpqua Indians of Oregon was terminated as a recognized 
tribe by the federal government in 1954, and later restored to federal 
recognition in 1982.
    The Klamath Tribes, Oregon, consist of the Klamath, Modoc and 
Yahooskin tribes. Their ancestral territory includes much of south-
central Oregon from the east slopes of the Cascades to the adjoining 
desert areas, northward to the Deschutes River headwaters and as far 
south as Mount Shasta in California. The tribes speak Klamath and 
Modoc, two closely-related dialects belonging to the Plateau branch of 
the Penutian language family. The tribes were removed to the Klamath 
Reservation immediately northeast of Upper Klamath Lake in the mid-
1860s, terminated from federal recognition in 1954, and then restored 
as a federally recognized tribe in 1986.
    The Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma and the Klamath Tribes, Oregon, have a 
shared ancestry. The traditional Modoc homeland consisted of some 5,000 
square miles along what is now the California-Oregon border. Following 
the conclusion of the Modoc War in 1873, the Modoc people were 
relocated to the Quapaw Reservation in Oklahoma. In 1909, the Modoc 
were granted permission to return to Oregon. Those who returned became 
part of the Klamath Tribes, Oregon. The Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma and the 
Klamath Tribes, Oregon, have formally agreed that repatriation of human 
remains from the historically documented territory of the Klamath 
Tribes should go to the Klamath Tribes, Oregon, for reburial.
    Officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District 
have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human 
remains described above represent the physical remains of at least 
three individuals of Native American ancestry. Officials of the U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District also have determined that, 
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(A), the 166 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. Army Corps of Engineers, 
Portland District 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 Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and 
Siuslaw Indians of Oregon; Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde 
Community of Oregon; Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, 
Oregon; Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians of Oregon; Klamath Tribes, 
Oregon; and Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Daniel Mulligan, NAGPRA Coordinator, 
Environmental Resources Branch, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland 
District, P. O. Box 2946, Portland, OR 97208-2946, telephone (503) 808-
4768, before July 17, 2008. Repatriation of the human remains and 
associated funerary objects to the Confederated Tribes of the Grand 
Ronde Community of Oregon, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians of Oregon, 
and/or Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon, may 
proceed after that date if no additional claimants come forward. The 
Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of 
Oregon, Coquille Tribe of Oregon, and Klamath Tribes, Oregon, in 
consultation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, 
have indicated their desire to defer their interest to the other 
mentioned Tribes.
    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District is responsible 
for notifying the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw 
Indians of Oregon; Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of 
Oregon; Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon; Coquille 
Tribe of Oregon; Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians of Oregon; Klamath 
Tribes, Oregon; and Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma that this notice has been 
published.

    Dated: May 21, 2008
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-13577 Filed 6-17-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S