[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 169 (Friday, August 29, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50989-50990]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-20107]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of 
the Interior, National Park Service, San Juan Island National 
Historical Park, Friday Harbor, WA and Thomas Burke Memorial Washington 
State Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

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 Thomas Burke 
Memorial Washington State Museum (Burke Museum) University of 
Washington, Seattle, WA, and in the control of the U.S. Department of 
the Interior, San Juan Island National Historical Park, Friday Harbor, 
WA, 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 
superintendent, San Juan Island National Historical Park.
    In 1946 and 1947, human remains and associated funerary objects 
were recovered during legally authorized excavations by University of 
Washington archeologist Arden King at the Cattle Point Site (45-SJ-01) 
on San Juan Island. Cattle Point is within the American Camp portion of 
San Juan Island National Historical Park on the southern part of San 
Juan Island. The funerary objects were transferred to the Burke Museum 
and later accessioned by the National Park Service. The whereabouts of 
the human remains is not known. The 249 unassociated funerary objects 
are 103 basalt flakes, 60 non-human mammalian bone fragments, 61 shell 
fragments, 2 bags of fish bones, 11 charcoal samples, 1 rock, 2 
sediment samples, 1 piece of obsidian, 1 fire cracked cobble, 1 quartz 
flake, 1 piece of schist, 2 pieces of slate, 1 pebble, 1 sea urchin 
spine, and 1 sea lion humerus.
    In 1970 and 1972, authorized excavations of a shell midden took 
place at the English Camp Site (45-SJ-24) on San Juan Island and within 
the English Camp portion of San Juan Island National Historical Park 
during a University of Idaho field school directed by Dr. Roderick 
Sprague.
    Four objects were recovered in 1970 from the same stratum in which 
a burial

[[Page 50990]]

was found. The human remains were transferred to the University of 
Idaho before being repatriated to the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi 
Reservation, Washington on June 26, 1991. The four funerary objects 
were transferred to the Burke Museum and accessioned by the National 
Park Service. The four unassociated funerary objects are one portion of 
a non-human mammalian limb bone, one basalt shatter fragment, one 
triangular basalt point fragment, and one ground abrader fragment.
    The 1972 excavation recovered 32 objects that were associated with 
three burials. The human remains were transferred to the University of 
Idaho and subsequently repatriated to the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi 
Reservation, Washington on June 26, 1991. The funerary objects were 
transferred to the Burke Museum and accessioned by the National Park 
Service. The 32 unassociated funerary objects are 2 fish vertebrae, 1 
antler tine fragment, 1 fused bird wing bone, 24 fragments of non-human 
bone, 2 pieces of fire modified rock, 1 basalt shatter fragment, and 1 
point fragment.
    Arden King's analysis of archeological data from Cattle Point 
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, including the two sites mentioned here, from 
approximately 2,000 years ago through the mid-19th century. 
Anthropologist Wayne Suttles has identified the occupants of San Juan 
Island as Northern Straits language speakers, 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 
European 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 Samish Indian Tribe, Washington is most 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 
negotiations for the Treaty of Point Elliott, 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 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 (3)(B), the 285 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 specific burial sites of Native 
American individuals. Officials of San Juan Island National Historical 
Park 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 Lummi Tribe of 
the Lummi Reservation, Washington.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects 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 September 29, 2008. Repatriation of the 
unassociated funerary objects 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: July 31, 2008.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-20107 Filed 8-28-08; 8:45 am]
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