[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 235 (Wednesday, December 9, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65144-65146]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-29298]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: University of Colorado Museum, 
Boulder, CO

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 of the University of Colorado Museum, 
Boulder, CO. The human remains and associated funerary objects were 
removed from Graham, Pinal, and Yavapai Counties, AZ.
    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 was made by the 
University of Colorado Museum professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak 
Chin) Indian Reservation, Arizona; Gila River Indian Community of the 
Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona; Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Salt 
River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, 
Arizona; Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico.
    On an unknown date prior to 1961, human remains representing a 
minimum of five individuals were removed from Pima, Graham County, AZ, 
by G.W. Hoofnagle. No known individuals were identified. The five 
associated funerary objects are one unknown brownware jar, one Maverick 
Mountain black-on-red jar, one Nantack Polychrome jar, one San Carlos 
red-on-brown jar, and one brownware jar with knobby protrusions.
    Burial practices, associated funerary objects, and the geographic 
location support Salado and Hohokam cultural determinations.
    On an unknown date prior to 1961, human remains representing a 
minimum of five individuals were removed from a midden site near 
Safford, Graham County, AZ, by G.W. Hoofnagle. No known individuals 
were identified. The six associated funerary objects are one lot of 
bird bones, two Maverick Mountain black-on-red jars, one unknown red 
slip brownware jar, one Gila Polychrome jar, and one San Carlos red-on-
brown jar.
    Burial practices, associated funerary objects, and the geographic 
location support Salado and Hohokam cultural determinations.
    On an unknown date prior to 1980, human remains representing a 
minimum of two individuals were removed from Burial Site 140, in the 
Gila-Salt area near Phoenix, Maricopa County, AZ, by an unknown 
individual. At one point, they were part of the Charles Petrat 
Collection. In February 1980, Asa Maxson donated them to the museum. No 
known individuals were identified. The two associated funerary objects 
are a Sacaton red-on-buff jar and an unknown brownware jar.
    Burial practices, associated funerary objects, and the geographic 
location support Salado and Hohokam cultural determinations.
    On an unknown date, human remains representing a minimum of two 
individuals were removed from Los Robles Wash, Pinal County, AZ, by an 
unknown individual. No known individuals were identified. The five 
associated funerary objects are one lot of undecorated buffware pottery 
sherds, one lot of lithics, one lot of non-human mammal bone and tooth 
fragments, and two lots of animal bone.
    Burial practices, associated funerary objects, and the geographic 
location support Hohokam cultural determination. Los Robles Wash 
Archaeological District is comprised of Hohokam-Salado sites on the 
National Register of Historic Places.
    In 1953, human remains representing a minimum of one individual 
were removed from four miles south of Toltec, Pinal County, AZ, by Mr. 
J. Whitman of Phoenix, AZ. In 1953, Herbert W. Dick, Trinidad State 
Junior College, Trinidad, CO, obtained them and negotiated a trade with 
the museum. No known individual was identified. The one associated 
funerary object is a Santa Cruz red-on-buff jar.
    Burial practices, the associated funerary object, and the 
geographic location support Hohokam cultural determination.
    On an unknown date prior to 1967, human remains representing a 
minimum of one individual were removed from near Florence, Pinal 
County, AZ, by Edward H. Eiberger. No known individual was identified. 
The associated funerary object is one lot of non-human bone fragments.
    Burial practices and the geographic location support Hohokam 
cultural determination.
    On an unknown date prior to 1980, human remains representing a 
minimum of one individual were removed from Maxson site 125, Verde 
River Ruin, north of Phoenix, Yavapai County, AZ, by an unknown 
individual.

[[Page 65145]]

In 1980, the human remains were donated to the museum by Asa Maxson. In 
February 2008, they were found in the museum. No known individual was 
identified. No associated funerary objects are present.
    The geographic location of removal supports Hohokam cultural 
determination.
    A relationship of shared group identity can be reasonably traced 
between the Hohokam culture, which dates from about A.D. 300 to A.D. 
1450, and the Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak Chin) Indian 
Reservation, Arizona; Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River 
Indian Reservation, Arizona; Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community 
of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona; and Tohono O'odham Nation of 
Arizona. These four Indian tribes are one cultural group known as the 
O'odham (anthropologically known as the Pima and Papago). The Piipaash 
(anthropologically known as the Maricopa) are a separate and distinct 
culture that is present in two of the four tribes. The four tribes are 
separated by political boundaries designated through the adoption/
assignment of reservations by the Federal Government, and not by any 
cultural differences.
    The O'odham people commonly refer to ancestors as ``the Huhugam.'' 
The term ``Huhugam`` refers to all of the ancestors from the first of 
the O'odham people to walk the earth to those who have perished during 
modern times. The term ``Hohokam'' is an English adaptation of the word 
Huhugam, and has become known in the larger society as an archeological 
culture. The term Huhugam is often mistaken for the word Hohokam, 
although the terms do not have the same meaning and are not 
interchangeable. The four Federally-recognized O'odham Indian tribes 
claim cultural affiliation to the Hohokam archeological cultures, as 
well as to all others present in their aboriginal claims area during 
the prehistory of what is now known as Arizona and Mexico. These 
affiliations include several other archeological cultures, including 
(but not limited to) the Archaic, Paleo-Indian, Salado, Patayan, and 
Sinagua.
    A written report, ``The Four Southern Tribes and the Hohokam of the 
Phoenix Basin,'' provided to the museum by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa 
Indian Community, provides a preponderance of evidence for a 
relationship of shared group identity between the Hohokam culture and 
the present-day O'odham. The evidence in the report is archeological, 
linguistic, oral tradition, ethnographical, kinship, and biological. 
Linguistic evidence indicates that all the O'odham speak different 
dialects of the same Uto-Aztecan language. O'odham communities were 
historically recorded as living in the Gila River area by Jesuit 
missionaries in 1687. In the 1700s, when written records about the 
O'odham began, they occupied at least seven Rancherias. At the time of 
European contact, the O'odham, who occupied land previously inhabited 
by the Hohokam, mirrored the Hohokam in many ways. The Hohokam were 
desert agriculturalists who developed an elaborate system of irrigation 
canals to irrigate their crops. At European contact, it was documented 
that the O'odham were also desert agriculturalist who utilized 
irrigation canals and rivers. Based on scientific evidence, scholars 
view the complex irrigation systems of the O'odham and the Hohokam as 
evidence for a cultural continuity between the two that involved the 
ability to control mass labor in order to construct and maintain these 
canals. The Hohokam had a distinct settlement pattern that consisted of 
small farmsteads scattered throughout the landscape. The O'odham 
practiced this same type of settlement pattern. There was general 
architecture through the Hohokam Period to the historic O'odham Period 
that exhibited a trend from quadrangular to round structures through 
time.
    A relationship of shared group identity can also reasonably be 
traced between the Hohokam and the Hopi Tribe and Zuni Tribe. Based on 
O'odham oral tradition, some of the people occupying the Hohokam area 
migrated north and joined the Zuni and Hopi (``The Four Southern Tribes 
and the Hohokam of the Phoenix Basin'').
    The ``Zuni Policy Statement Regarding the Protection and Treatment 
of Human Remains and Associated Funerary Objects,'' (November 1992), 
which was sent to museums in the 1990s, states that Zuni is culturally 
affiliated to earlier groups, including Hohokam and Salado. On July 11, 
1995, Zuni Tribe issued a Statement of Cultural Affiliation with 
Prehistoric and Historic Cultures. In the statement, the Zuni Tribe 
stated that it has a relationship of shared group identity with Hohokam 
and Salado culture based on oral teachings and traditions, 
ethnohistoric documentation, historic documentation, archeological 
documentation, and other evidence. Zuni Tribe oral tradition supports a 
relationship of shared group identity between the Zuni and the Hohokam 
and Salado. The Phoenix Basin is a part of the Zuni migration 
histories, as Medicine societies and Kiva groups have migration 
histories that place them in the Phoenix Basin.
    Resolution H-70-94 signed on May 23, 1994, by the Hopi Tribal 
Council declares formal cultural affinity and affiliation with the 
Hohokam and Salado cultural groups. According to ``Yep Hisat 
Hoopoq'yaqam Yeesiwa (Hopi Ancestors Were Once Here): Hopi Cultural 
Affiliation with the Ancient Hohokam of Southern Arizona,'' a report by 
T.J. Ferguson, Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma, Micah Loma'omvaya, Patrick Lyons, 
Greg Schachner, and Laurie Webster, the Hopi people trace their 
historical relationship with ancestral Hoopoq'yaqam groups that resided 
in the Hohokam area using traditional history and geography, kinship, 
archeological materials, and on-going religious and cultural practices. 
This information is embedded in the navoti (traditional knowledge) and 
wiimi (religious practices and esoteric rites) that the Hopi inherited 
from their ancestors. Corroborating evidence of a historical 
relationship with the Hohokam comes from ethnographic and archeological 
studies. Ceramic iconography, ritual artifacts, and textiles constitute 
distinct patterns of material culture manufacture and distribution that 
link Hohokam and Hopi groups.
    According to oral tradition, Hopi clan migration supports a shared 
group identity with Hohokam and Salado. Modern-day ritual pilgrimage 
practices support the oral tradition. According to the notes of 
archeologist Harold S. Colton, a Hopi shrine is located near the 
mountain peaks in the vicinity of Phoenix. Cremation was practiced by 
at least one clan that migrated from the south to present-day Hopi. 
Linguistically, Hopi is related to the four southern Arizona tribes. 
Architectural evidence also supports a shared group identity. San 
Pedro, near Safford, has Hopi style kivas. Hopi kivas are rectangular 
in shape. The evolution of kivas happened when people came to Hopi. 
According to oral tradition, the era of the round kiva was over and the 
square kiva meant the migration was at an end.
    Officials of the University of Colorado Museum have determined 
that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains described 
above represent the physical remains of 17 individuals of Native 
American ancestry. Officials of the University of Colorado Museum also 
have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(A), the 20 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

[[Page 65146]]

the death rite or ceremony. Lastly, officials of the University of 
Colorado Museum 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 Native American human remains and associated 
funerary objects and the Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak 
Chin) Indian Reservation, Arizona; Gila River Indian Community of the 
Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona; Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Salt 
River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, 
Arizona; Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Steve Lekson, Curator of Anthropology, 
University of Colorado Museum, Henderson Building, Campus Box 218, 
Boulder, CO 80309-0218, telephone (303) 492-6671, before January 8, 
2010. Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary objects 
to the Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak Chin) Indian 
Reservation, Arizona; Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River 
Indian Reservation, Arizona; Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community 
of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona; Tohono O'odham Nation of 
Arizona; Hopi Tribe of Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, 
New Mexico may proceed after that date if no additional claimants come 
forward.
    The University of Colorado Museum is responsible for notifying the 
Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak Chin) Indian Reservation, 
Arizona; Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian 
Reservation, Arizona; Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Salt River Pima-Maricopa 
Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona; Tohono O'odham 
Nation of Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico 
that this notice has been published.

    Dated: October 29, 2009.
Richard C. Waldbauer,
Acting Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-29298 Filed 12-08-09; 8:45 am]
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