[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 203 (Thursday, October 21, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65028-65029]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-26466]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: 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 hereby 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, 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 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

[[Page 65029]]

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.
    Native American cultural items described in this notice were 
excavated under Antiquities Act permits by the University of Oregon, 
Eugene, OR, on Army Corps of Engineers project land. Following 
excavations at the site described below, and under the provisions of 
the permits, the University of Oregon retained the collections for 
preservation.
    Between 1959 and 1968, cultural items were removed from site 35-GM-
9, also known as the Wildcat Canyon site, Gilliam County, OR, during 
excavations by the University of Oregon prior to construction of the 
John Day Dam. The cultural items were accessioned by the University of 
Oregon Museum following each successive field season. The 1,420 objects 
recovered from Area 3 of site 35-GM-9, a cemetery primarily used from 
approximately 2,500-2,000 B.P., are categorized as unassociated 
funerary objects because specific associations with individual burials 
cannot be determined due to unclear spatial distributions of the 
artifacts in relation to particular sets of human remains. The 1,420 
unassociated funerary objects are 32 projectile points, 25 projectile 
point fragments, 30 blades, 52 blade fragments, 1 multipurpose tool, 3 
stone mauls, 1 obsidian chopper, 17 pestles, 14 pestle fragments, 1 
hammerstone, 10 worked/flaked cobbles, 5 river pebbles, 1 flaked 
pebble, 1 rectangular flat stone, 1 flake knife, 12 gravers, 7 burins, 
1 spokeshave, 1 core, 12 scrapers, 2 end scraper fragments, 12 
bifacially-modified flakes, 55 unifacially-modified flakes, 7 curved 
flakes, 1 lamellar flake, 2 worked chert flakes, 935 unmodified flakes, 
3 stone drills, 6 drill fragments, 5 stone clinkers, 1 possible metate, 
1 galena atlatl weight, 1 bolas stone, 1 polishing stone, 2 worked 
shale or slate fragments, 5 abraders, 1 shaft smoother, 2 shaft 
smoother fragments, 1 antler awl fragment, 3 bone awl fragments, 1 bone 
shaft wrench, 1 bone tube, 17 worked antlers, 10 burned antlers, 1 deer 
jaw, 19 worked bones, 1 cut bone, 1 burned bone fragment, 1 notched 
bone, 2 decorated bones, 3 bone strips, 52 miscellaneous non-human 
bones and bone fragments, 2 stone pendant fragments, 1 shell pendant, 1 
pebble pendant, 2 dentalia, 1 unspecified bead, 14 bone beads, 1 antler 
bead, 2 nose plugs, 1 worked pumice piece, 8 red ochre pieces, 1 shell, 
1 grooved slate tool and 3 shell flecks.
    Site 35-GM-9 is located along the south side shoreline of the 
Columbia River, approximately 9.5 river miles east of the John Day 
River confluence. The multicomponent site contains multiple activity 
areas that are believed to have been repeatedly occupied from 
approximately 9,000 B.P. to A.D. 1750. Site 35-GM-9 frequently served 
as a village, camping area and cemetery. Area 3 is believed to have 
primarily served as a burial area. The burial pattern observed within 
Area 3 is consistent with customs of Columbia Plateau Native American 
groups. Excavation and museum documentation indicate that the objects 
are consistent with cultural items typically found in context with 
burials characteristic of the Mid-Columbia River Basin.
    Oral traditions and ethnographic reports indicate that site 35-GM-9 
lies within the historic territory of Sahaptin-speaking Tenino or Warm 
Springs peoples whose descendants are culturally affiliated with the 
present-day Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of 
Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation are 
composed of three Wasco bands, four Warm Springs bands, and Northern 
Paiutes. The Columbia River-based Wasco were the easternmost group of 
Chinookan-speaking Indians. The Sahaptin-speaking Warm Springs bands 
lived farther east along the Columbia River and its tributaries. 
Northern Paiutes, who spoke a Uto-Aztecan language, historically 
occupied much of southeastern Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of the 
Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon peoples also traditionally shared 
the site area with relatives and neighbors whose descendants may be 
culturally affiliated with the 14 Sahaptin, Salish and Chinookan-
speaking tribes and bands of the present-day Confederated Tribes and 
Bands of the Yakama Nation, Washington. Yakama homelands were 
traditionally located 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, 
and University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 1,420 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 specific burial sites of Native 
American individuals. Officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 
Portland District, and University of Oregon Museum of Natural and 
Cultural History, 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 objects 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 objects 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 November 22, 
2010. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary objects to the 
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon and/or 
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; Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, 
Washington; Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 
Oregon; and Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho, that this notice has been 
published.

    Dated: October 14, 2010.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2010-26466 Filed 10-20-10; 8:45 am]
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