[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 56 (Wednesday, March 25, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12895-12896]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-6508]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: Department of Anthropology, 
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

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 and associated funerary 
objects in the possession and control of the Department of 
Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. The human 
remains and associated funerary objects are believed to have been 
removed from a Maine coastal shell midden either east of the Penobscot 
Bay and/or possibly Bailey Island, Casco Bay, Cumberland County, ME.
    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 Native 
American human remains and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains and an inventory of the 
associated funerary objects were made by the Department of 
Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst professional staff 
in consultation with Amherst College, Amherst, MA, and Smith College, 
Northampton, MA, and with the Wabanaki Intertribal Repatriation 
Committee, a non-Federally recognized Indian group, representing the 
Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians of Maine, Houlton Band of Maliseet 
Indians of Maine, Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine, and Penobscot Tribe of 
Maine.
    At an unknown date, human remains representing a minimum of four 
individuals are believed to have been removed from an unknown shell 
midden site in Maine. Sometime in the 1970s, the human remains and 
associated funerary objects became part of the collection of the 
Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and 
became known as the Bailey Collection. No known individuals were 
identified. The 128 associated funerary objects are 3 felsite chunks; 
22 carved bone pieces; 6 beaver teeth fragments; 9 carnivore and 
herbivore teeth fragments; 1 bone point; 9 animal bone fragments; 1 
mammal claw; 9 bone harpoon tips; 2 axes, 4 blanks; 1 possible pestle; 
1 axe-like lithic; 1 cobble; 8 ground and polished stone tools; 43 
bifaces; 4 projectile points; and 4 pottery sherds.
    The collection records do not provide a clear provenience for these 
materials, though they are suggestive that the collection was excavated 
by people during the early 20th century. It is unknown if the name 
``Bailey'' refers to a collector's name, site name, or geographic 
placename. Additional research does not establish an association with 
the archeologist John H. Bailey who worked in Vermont in the 1930s, or 
with the work of archeologists Alfred Bailey or L.W. Bailey. The 
collection may be from a site on Bailey Island in Casco Bay, ME, 
although there is no clear association to any known archeological 
excavations at this location. Documents in the collections records 
suggest that there might be a connection to the work of Professor 
Frederic Loomis of Amherst College, who conducted fieldwork at shell 
midden sites in Maine during the 1910s to 1930s. In 1914, Loomis 
donated some material collected from shell midden sites at Boothbay, 
Biggers Island, Winter Harbor, Sorrento, and Slave Islands to Professor 
Harris Hawthorne Wilder of Smith College, who was also excavating in 
Maine at the time. Sometime after 1966, shell midden materials from 
these sites were transferred from Smith College to the Department of 
Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Although the 
records from Amherst College and Smith College do not specifically 
mention the ``Bailey'' site, it is possible that the Bailey collection 
was part of this transfer.
     In 1990, University of Massachusetts Professor Dena Dincauze, in 
consultation with Dr. Bruce Bourque of the University of Maine, 
concluded that the artifacts in the Bailey Collection are consistent 
with those recovered from coastal shell middens east of the Penobscot 
Bay, ME. During Bourque's assessment of the barbed harpoon forms, 
corner-notched Late Period bifaces, pebble adze and other ground stone 
pieces, and raw materials such as Kineo felsites and ``trap'' (possibly 
hornfels), he noted calcium carbonate deposits on some of the 
artifacts, which is typical of materials recovered from leaching shell 
middens. According to Dincauze, the styles of the artifacts indicate a 
date to the ``Ceramic Period'' of Maine, especially the last 1,500 
years before European contact, though there are some artifacts (e.g., a 
large biface) that are similar to Middle Woodland (2000-1600 BP) 
artifacts. Bourque, Dincauze, and Dr. Arthur Spiess, of the Maine 
Historic Preservation Commission, have suggested that the style of the 
bone comb top in the collection resembles Beothuk or Inuit styles more 
characteristic of Newfoundland than Maine. However, since most of the 
materials are from the Ceramic Period, the officials of the Department 
of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, reasonably 
believe they are from the same type of burials. In 2008, a tribal 
representative of the Penobscot Tribe of Maine, after reviewing the 
materials, concurred with Dincauze and Bourque and found the

[[Page 12896]]

artifact assemblage to be consistent with possible associated funerary 
objects from Ceramic Period burials in Maine.
    The Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians of Maine, Houlton Band of 
Maliseet Indians of Maine, Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine, and Penobscot 
Tribe of Maine, represented by the Wabanaki Intertribal Repatriation 
Committee, a non-Federally recognized Indian group, are widely 
recognized as having a shared cultural relationship with the people of 
the Ceramic Period of Maine (2,000 B.P. to European contact).
    Officials of the Department of Anthropology, University of 
Massachusetts, Amherst have determined that pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 
(9-10), the human remains described above represent the physical 
remains of four individuals of Native American ancestry. Officials of 
the Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 
also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(A), the 128 
objects 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. Lastly, officials of the Department 
of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst have determined 
that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), there is a relationship of shared 
group identity that can reasonably be traced between the Native 
American human remains and the associated funerary objects and the 
Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians of Maine, Houlton Band of Maliseet 
Indians of Maine, Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine, and Penobscot Tribe of 
Maine, represented by the Wabanaki Intertribal Repatriation Committee, 
a non-Federally recognized Indian group.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Robert Paynter, Repatriation Committee Chair, 
Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, 201 Machmer 
Hall, 240 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003, telephone (413)545-2221, before 
April 24, 2009. Repatriation of the human remains and associated 
funerary objects to the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians of Maine, 
Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians of Maine, Passamaquoddy Tribe of 
Maine, and Penobscot Tribe of Maine, represented by the Wabanaki 
Intertribal Repatriation Committee, a non-Federally recognized Indian 
group, may proceed after that date if no additional claimants come 
forward.
    The Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, 
Amherst is responsible for notifying Amherst College and Smith College, 
and the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians of Maine, Houlton Band of 
Maliseet Indians of Maine, Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine, Penobscot 
Tribe of Maine, and Wabanaki Intertribal Repatriation Committee, a non-
Federally recognized Indian group, that this notice has been published.

    Dated: March 12, 2009
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-6508 Filed 3-24-09; 8:45 am]
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