[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 163 (Thursday, August 21, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49482-49483]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-19323]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: McWane Science 
Center, Birmingham, AL

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 cultural items in the possession of the McWane Science 
Center, Birmingham, AL, that meet the definition of ``unassociated 
funerary objects'' under 25 U.S.C. 3001.
    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.
    In the early 1900s, cultural items were removed from the Carden 
Bottoms site (3YE14) in Yell County, AR. Between 1979 and 1985, G.E. 
Pilquist, a collector from Dardanelle, AR, donated the cultural items 
to the Red Mountain Museum, Birmingham, AL. In 1994, the Red Mountain 
Museum merged with the Discovery Place under the name, Discovery 2000 
Inc., and now operates as McWane Science Center. The cultural items are 
recorded as having been recovered from a grave. The five unassociated 
funerary objects are four stone beads and one blue glass bead.
    According to oral evidence of the Quapaw Tribe of Indians, cultural 
items of personal adornment were placed with an individual at the time 
of death or as a part of the death rite or ceremony. Funerary objects 
associated with the human remains removed from the Carden Bottoms site 
have been determined to date to the early historic period. The human 
remains and associated funerary objects may be a late component of the 
Carden Bottoms complex, common along the Lower Arkansas River, 
including Yell County. The human remains and associated funerary 
objects that are also recorded as being removed from the Carden Bottoms 
site are described in an accompanying Notice of Inventory Completion. 
Oral history evidence presented by representatives of the Quapaw Tribe 
of Indians, Oklahoma indicates that the region has long been included 
in the traditional territory of the Quapaw. The Quapaw Tribe dominated 
that area when sustained European occupation of the lower Arkansas 
River began in the mid to late 1600s. In 1818, the Quapaw ceded the 
area south of the Arkansas River, including what is now Yell County, to 
the United States.
    Officials of the McWane Science Center have determined that, 
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(B), the five cultural items 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 and are believed, by a preponderance of the 
evidence, to have been removed from a specific burial site of a Native 
American individual. Officials of the McWane Science Center 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 unassociated funerary objects and the Quapaw Tribe of 
Indians, Oklahoma.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should 
contact Jun Ebersole, Collections Manager, McWane Science Center, 200 
19th St. N, Birmingham, AL 35203, telephone (205) 714-8347, before 
September 22, 2008. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary objects 
to the Quapaw Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma may proceed after that date if 
no additional claimants come forward.
    The McWane Science Center is responsible for notifying the Quapaw

[[Page 49483]]

Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma that this notice has been published.

    Dated: July 14, 2008
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-19323 Filed 8-20-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S