[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 215 (Wednesday, November 5, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Page 65875]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-26349]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item: 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.

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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 a cultural item, 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 meets the definition of ``unassociated 
funerary object'' 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 1962, one cultural item was removed from site 45-KL-15, 
Klickitat County, WA, during excavations conducted by the University of 
Oregon prior to construction of the John Day Dam. The cultural item was 
accessioned by the University of Oregon Museum in 1962. The single 
unassociated funerary object is a copper bracelet.
    The object was collected from the surface of an unidentified burial 
area associated with site 45-KL-15. No other materials were retrieved 
from this part of the site. Site 45-KL-15 consists of separate, 
severely-eroded and vandalized habitation and burial areas located 
along the now-inundated, north side shoreline of the Columbia River. 
Although no dates of occupation were obtained by the researchers, 
eyewitness accounts and cultural material observed in other portions of 
the site suggest the burial area was used during the late prehistoric 
through recent Historic times. The object appears to date from the 
Historic period. Excavation and museum documentation indicate that the 
copper bracelet is consistent with cultural items typically found in 
context with Columbia Plateau Native American burials characteristic of 
the Mid-Columbia River Basin.
    Oral histories and published ethnographic documentation indicate 
that site 45-KL-15 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 cultural 
item described above is 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 is believed, by a 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 object 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 object 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 December 5, 
2008. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary object 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: October 21, 2008.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-26349 Filed 11-4-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S