[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 25, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71674-71675]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-28005]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: 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. 3003, of the 
completion of an inventory of human remains 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. The human remains were removed 
from an undetermined location in Benton County, OR, during an Army 
Corps of Engineers-sponsored development project.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative

[[Page 71675]]

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 Native 
American human remains. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the 
University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History and U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District professional staff in 
consultation with representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the 
Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and Confederated Tribes of the Siletz 
Reservation, Oregon.
    In 1951, human remains representing a minimum of eight individuals 
were removed from an undetermined location in Benton County, OR, by the 
Army Corps of Engineers during construction of a levee near the 
Willamette River. The location, referred to as ``Fir Grove,'' was 
situated somewhere between Albany and Corvallis, OR. Following their 
removal from the area, the human remains were transferred to the 
University of Oregon for preservation. No known individuals were 
identified. No associated funerary objects are present.
    Museum accession notes indicate that stone tools and cultural 
objects were found in association with the human remains, but none of 
the cultural items were transferred to the University of Oregon Museum. 
Based on distinctive osteological evidence and the documented 
association of the human remains with the observed artifacts, the 
individuals have been determined to be Native American.
    Ethnographic records suggest the area between present-day Albany 
and Corvallis, OR, was occupied by Kalapuya bands during the early 
Contact Period. The human remains described above are believed to have 
been removed from an area within or near the traditional lands of the 
Kalapuyan peoples whose descendants are members of the present-day 
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and 
Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon.
    The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon 
include at least 26 tribes and bands whose ancestral homelands span 
western Oregon, southwestern Washington and northern California. The 
Grand Ronde tribes and bands include the Rogue River, Umpqua, Chasta, 
Kalapuya, Molala, Clackamas, Salmon River, Tillamook, and Nestucca, as 
well as other, smaller groups. At the time of contact, the individual 
groups spoke 30 dialects of the Athapascan, Chinookan, Kalapuyan, 
Takelman, Molalan, Sahaptin, Salishan, and Shastan language families. 
In 1856-1857, the U.S. Government forcibly relocated the Grand Ronde 
peoples to the Grand Ronde Reservation, located at the headwaters of 
the South Yamhill River in Yamhill and Polk Counties, OR. The 
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon were first 
incorporated in 1935, terminated from Federal recognition in 1954, and 
restored to recognized status in 1983.
    The Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon, are a 
confederation of 30 bands whose ancestral territory ranged along the 
entire Oregon coast and Coast Range, inland to the main divide of the 
Cascade Range and southward to the Rogue River watershed. The principal 
tribes include the Clatsop, Chinook, Klickitat, Molala, Kalapuya, 
Tillamook, Alsea, Siuslaw/Lower Umpqua, Coos, Coquille, Upper Umpqua, 
Tututni, Chetco, Tolowa, Takelma or Upper Rogue River, Galice/
Applegate, and Shasta. The ancestors of the Confederated Tribes of the 
Siletz Reservation spoke at least 10 different base languages, many of 
which had strong dialectic divisions even within the same language. In 
general, five linguistic stocks - Salish, Yakonan, Kusan, Takelman, and 
Athapascan - are represented by the tribes. The tribes were forcibly 
removed from their homelands in 1855 by the U.S. Government and placed 
on the Siletz and Grand Ronde reservations. After having their tribal 
status terminated from Federal recognition in 1954, the Confederated 
Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon were officially restored to 
recognized status in 1977.
    Officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District 
have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human 
remains described above represent the physical remains of at least 
eight individuals of Native American ancestry. 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 Native American 
human remains and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community 
of Oregon and/or Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains 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 26, 2008. 
Repatriation of the human remains to the Confederated Tribes of the 
Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and/or Confederated Tribes of the 
Siletz Reservation, Oregon, 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 Grand Ronde Community of 
Oregon and Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation, Oregon that 
this notice has been published.

    Dated: October 30, 2008
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-28005 Filed 11-24-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S