[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 220 (Tuesday, November 16, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70025-70026]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-28741]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[2253-665]


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior, 
Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest Region, Boise, ID, and 
Colville Tribal Repository, Nespelem, WA

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. 3003, of the 
completion of an inventory of human remains in the control of the U.S. 
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest 
Region, Boise, ID, and in the physical custody of the Colville Tribal 
Repository, Nespelem, WA. The human remains were removed from Grant 
County, WA.
    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. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by Bureau of 
Reclamation professional staff with assistance from a Central 
Washington University physical anthropologist and professional staff 
from Washington State University, the National Park Service, and the 
History/Archaeology Department of the Confederated Tribes of the 
Colville Reservation, Washington.
    From the winter of 1963 to 1964, human remains representing a 
minimum of eight individuals were removed from a location, which was 
later designated as the Steamboat Rock Mass Grave (45-GR-98), near the 
mouth of Barker Canyon at Banks Lake, Grant County, WA. A member of the 
general public reported a mass grave had been exposed by receding 
waters at Banks Lake. Members of Washington State University's 
Department of Sociology and Anthropology excavated the remains in an 
effort to protect them from vandalism and theft. The remains were 
accessioned at Washington State University. The human remains were 
moved, most likely in 1967, to the Alfred Bowers Laboratory of 
Anthropology at the University of Idaho. At an unknown date, the 
remains were loaned to the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, 
for analysis, and this analysis occurred in 1967. There is no 
documentation indicating if the loan originated while the remains were 
at Washington State University or after they had been moved to the 
University of Idaho, nor is there documentation of which institution 
they were returned to following analysis. However, the human remains 
were stored at the University of Idaho until 2000, when they were moved 
back to Washington State University. In 2006, they were transferred to 
the Colville Tribal Repository for curation pending repatriation. No 
known individuals were identified. No associated funerary objects are 
present.
    No physical description of the remains was prepared at the time of 
recovery. In 1967, the Arizona State Museum documented the partial 
remains of six individuals. In 2005, the Bureau of Reclamation 
completed a physical description of the remains. All individuals 
identified in 1967 were present in the collection at the time of the 
2005 inventory, and isolated elements representing two additional 
individuals were identified.
    The osteological evidence as described by archeologists and 
physical anthropologists indicate the human remains described above are 
Native American. The geographic location of the site is within the 
Plateau Culture Area. The site is within the judicially established 
aboriginal territory of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville 
Reservation. Tribal oral tradition and anthropological and historical 
research indicate the site lies within an area occupied by the Sanpoil 
and the Nespelem Tribes or Bands, who are legally represented by the 
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Washington.
    Officials of the Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest Region, 
have determined, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), that the human remains 
described above represent the physical remains of eight individuals of 
Native American ancestry. Officials of the Bureau of Reclamation, 
Pacific Northwest Region, have also determined, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 
3001(2), that 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 Colville Reservation, Washington.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Ms. 
Lynne MacDonald, Regional Archeologist, Pacific Northwest Region, 
Bureau of Reclamation, 1150 N. Curtis Road,

[[Page 70026]]

Boise, ID 83706, telephone (208) 378-5316, before December 16, 2010. 
Repatriation of the human remains to the Confederated Tribes of the 
Colville Reservation, Washington, may proceed after that date if no 
additional claimants come forward.
    The Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest Region, is responsible 
for notifying the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, 
Washington, that this notice has been published.

    Dated: November 5, 2010.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2010-28741 Filed 11-15-10; 8:45 am]
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