[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 139 (Friday, July 18, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41380-41381]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-16463]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior, 
National Park Service, San Juan Island National Historical Park, Friday 
Harbor, WA and Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

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 
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, and in the 
control of the U.S. Department of the Interior, San Juan Island 
National Historical Park, Friday Harbor, WA. The human remains were 
removed from a prehistoric archeological site within the boundaries of 
San Juan Island National Historical Park, San Juan County, WA.
    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 
superintendent, San Juan Island National Historical Park.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Arizona 
State Museum and San Juan Island National Historical Park professional 
staff in consultation with representatives of the Lummi Tribe of the 
Lummi Reservation, Washington; Samish Indian Tribe, Washington; and 
Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation, Washington.
    In 1970, human remains representing a minimum of two individuals 
were removed from the English Camp Site (45-SJ-24) in San Juan County, 
WA, during University of Idaho field school excavations directed by Dr. 
Roderick Sprague. The human remains were loaned to the Arizona State 
Museum, University of Arizona for non-destructive osteological analysis 
by physical anthropologist Walter Birkby. Detailed University of 
Arizona, Physical Anthropology Laboratory data sheets were completed 
for both sets of remains in May 1974. No known individuals were 
identified. No associated funerary objects are present.
    In 1995, the remains were listed on the Arizona State Museum NAGPRA 
inventory as culturally unidentifiable. In March 2005 National Park 
Service staff informed Arizona State Museum that the remains were in 
control of San

[[Page 41381]]

Juan Island National Historical Park and should be included on the 
park's inventory. National Park Service staff also informed Arizona 
State Museum that cultural affiliation could be determined for these 
remains.
    Based upon skeletal morphology, archeological data, geographic 
context and accession documents, the two individuals from the English 
Camp Site are of Native American ancestry. Arden King's analysis of 
archeological data from another site on San Juan Island resulted in the 
identification of three prehistoric phases, with the most recent 
representing a maritime adaptation that is ancestral to historic native 
populations in the United States and Canada. Archeological research and 
analysis indicates continuous habitation of San Juan Island from 
approximately 2,000 years ago through the mid-19th century. Recent 
analysis of shell middens at the English Camp Site by Professor Julie 
Stein of the University of Washington confirms site formation processes 
for a 2,000 year period. Anthropologist Wayne Suttles has identified 
the occupants of San Juan Island as Northern Straits language-speaking 
people, a linguistic subset of a larger Central Coast Salish 
population, who were ancestors of the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi 
Reservation, Washington. Furthermore, Suttles' anthropological research 
in the late 1940s confirmed that the Lummi primarily occupied San Juan 
Island and other nearby islands in the contact period and during the 
early history of the Lummi Reservation that was established on the 
mainland in 1855 through Article II of the Treaty of Point Elliott. San 
Juan Island is within the aboriginal territory of the Lummi Tribe of 
the Lummi Reservation, Washington. Lummi oral tradition, history and 
anthropological data clearly associate the Lummi with San Juan Island.
    The National Park Service and the Arizona State Museum consulted 
with the Samish Indian Tribe, Washington of Anacortes, WA, and the 
Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation, Washington, of La 
Conner, WA, because of their potential cultural affiliation and their 
expressed interests in the human remains and associated funerary 
objects from San Juan Island at the Arizona State Museum, as well as in 
an inadvertent discovery of Native American human remains at San Juan 
Island National Historical Park in 2003. The Samish Indian Tribe, 
Washington is closely associated with the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi 
Reservation, Washington linguistically and culturally, and the Samish 
regard San Juan Island to be within the usual and accustomed territory 
shared by both tribes at the time of the Point Elliott Treaty 
negotiations in 1855. In 2006, the Samish Indian Tribe, Washington and 
the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington entered into a 
cooperative agreement to have the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, 
Washington take the lead in receiving repatriated human remains and 
funerary objects from San Juan Island National Historical Park. The 
traditional territory of the Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish 
Reservation, Washington is on the mainland in the vicinity of La 
Conner, WA, on Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island, the site of their 
reservation.
    Officials of San Juan Island National Historical Park have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains 
described above represent the physical remains of two individuals of 
Native American ancestry. Lastly, officials of San Juan Island National 
Historical Park 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 Lummi Tribe of 
the Lummi Reservation, Washington.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Peter 
Dederich, superintendent, San Juan Island National Historical Park, 
P.O. Box 429, Friday Harbor, WA 98250-04289, telephone (360) 378-2240, 
before August 18, 2008. Repatriation of the human remains to the Lummi 
Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington may proceed after that date 
if no additional claimants come forward.
    San Juan Island National Historical Park is responsible for 
notifying the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington; Samish 
Indian Tribe, Washington; and Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish 
Reservation, Washington that this notice has been published.

    Dated: June 10, 2008
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. E8-16463 Filed 7-17-08; 8:45 am]
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