[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 25, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71673-71674]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-28038]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: Peabody Museum of 
Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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[[Page 71674]]

    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 Peabody Museum of 
Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 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.
    The cultural items are two shell beads described as ``burial 
wampum.''
    In 1913, the Peabody Museum of Natural History received two shell 
beads described as ``Two pieces of Wampum. Indian. From a grave in 
Cayuga County, New York.'' The cultural items were donated to the 
museum by Robert W. Curtis of Stratford, CT.
    Cayuga County, NY, is in the traditional territory of the Onondaga 
Nation. No other documentation about the cultural items exists in the 
museum's records. Based on the geographic origin of the beads, the 
catalog description of the items as burial associations, and 
consultation with representatives of the Onondaga Nation of New York, 
the cultural items were determined to be unassociated funerary objects 
and culturally affiliated to the Onondaga Nation of New York.
    Officials of the Peabody Museum of Natural History have determined 
that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(B), the two 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 Peabody Museum of Natural History 
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 Onondaga Nation of 
New York.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should 
contact the Director, Peabody Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 
208118, 170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520-8118, telephone (203) 
432-3753, before December 26, 2008. Repatriation of the unassociated 
funerary objects to the Onondaga Nation of New York may proceed after 
that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The Peabody Museum of Natural History is responsible for notifying 
the Onondaga Nation of New York that this notice has been published.

    Dated: October 28, 2008
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-28038 Filed 11-24-08; 8:45 am]
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