[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 204 (Tuesday, October 21, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62528-62529]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-24969]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of 
Defense, Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR and 
University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Eugene, OR

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

    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, for which the University of Oregon Museum 
of Natural and Cultural History, Eugene, OR, and U.S. Department of 
Defense, Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR, have 
joint responsibility, 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.

[[Page 62529]]

    In 1959, cultural items were removed from site 45-KL-18, also known 
as the Fountain Bar Site, Klickitat County, WA, during excavations 
conducted by the University of Oregon prior to construction of the John 
Day Dam. The cultural items were accessioned by the University of 
Oregon Museum in 1959. The 85 unassociated funerary objects are 2 
projectile point fragments, 2 knife fragments, 2 preforms, 2 biface/
uniface tools, 1 biface, 5 biface fragments, 8 unifaces, 2 scrapers, 1 
graver, 3 hammerstones, 6 flaked cobbles, 32 unmodified flakes, 6 
dentalia, 4 steatite beads, 3 oval blue glass beads, 1 blue faceted 
glass bead, 2 other beads, 2 strings of shell beads, and 1 vial of 
shell beads.
    Some of the objects are listed as having been recovered from a 
designated ``burial area'' without reference to specific burials, while 
association of others with specific burials cannot be verified because 
of incomplete documentation, but are reasonably believed to be 
unassociated funerary objects. Site 45-KL-18 extends from the mouth of 
Rock Creek for more than 2 miles eastward along the now-inundated, 
north side shoreline of the Columbia River. The site is described as a 
severely-looted, vandalized and eroded lithic scatter and cemetery. 
Although no dates of occupation were obtained by the researchers, the 
burials and associated and unassociated funerary objects were 
characterized as prehistoric. The site burial pattern is consistent 
with customs of Columbia Plateau Native American groups. Excavation and 
museum documentation indicate that the cultural items are consistent 
with cultural items typically found in context with burials 
characteristic of the Mid-Columbia River Basin.
    Oral histories and published ethnographic documentation indicate 
that site 45-KL-18 is located within the traditional territory of 
Sahaptin-speaking groups represented by the present-day Confederated 
Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon and Confederated 
Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Washington. Per the 1855 Treaty 
with the Tribes of Middle Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm 
Springs Reservation of Oregon signers were comprised of three 
Chinookan-speaking Wasco bands and four Sahaptin-speaking Warm Springs 
bands. The Uto-Aztecan-speaking Northern Paiutes, also part of the 
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, joined 
the confederation in the 1870s. The Wasco and Warm Springs bands 
traditionally occupied the south shore of the Columbia River and its 
tributaries from Cascade Locks to just east of the present-day city of 
Arlington, OR. The 14 Sahaptin, Salish and Chinookan-speaking tribes 
and bands of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, 
Washington traditionally lived on the Washington side of the Columbia 
River between the eastern flanks of the Cascade Range and the lower 
reaches of the Yakima River drainage.
    Officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District 
have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(B), the 85 
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 
preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed from a specific 
burial site of a Native American individual. Officials of the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers, Portland District have also 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 Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs 
Reservation of Oregon and/or Confederated Tribes and Bands of the 
Yakama Nation, Washington.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated 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 November 20, 
2008. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary objects to the 
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon and/or 
the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Washington may 
proceed after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District is responsible 
for notifying the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation 
of Oregon and Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, 
Washington that this notice has been published.

    Dated: September 10, 2008.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-24969 Filed 10-20-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S