[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 180 (Monday, September 17, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57112-57113]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-22747]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-11059; 2200-1100-665]


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Defense, Army, 
Fort Sill Museum, Lawton, OK

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Defense, Army, Fort Sill Museum, with 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, has completed an 
inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects in 
consultation with the appropriate Indian tribe, and has determined that 
there is a cultural affiliation between the human remains and 
associated funerary objects and a present-day Indian tribe. 
Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes itself to be 
culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects may contact the Fort Sill Museum. Repatriation of the human 
remains and associated funerary objects to the Indian tribe stated 
below occurred on April 12, 2004.

DATES: Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes it has a 
cultural affiliation with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact the Fort Sill Museum at the address below by 
October 17, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Scott A. Neel, Ph.D., Director, Fort Sill National Historic 
Landmark and Museum, U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence, Fort Sill, 
OK 73503, telephone (580) 442-6570.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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 and 
associated funerary objects in the possession of the Fort Sill Museum. 
The human remains and associated funerary objects were removed from 
Comanche County, OK.
    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.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the human remains and funerary objects was 
made by professional staff from the Fort Sill Museum and the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, in consultation with 
representatives of the Comanche Nation, Oklahoma.

History and Description of the Remains

    In November 1969, human remains representing, at minimum, one 
individual were removed from the Jared site (34CM221) in Comanche 
County, OK. The burial was excavated by staff from the Museum of the 
Great Plains, OK, and representatives of Fort Sill. Following the 
excavation, Dr. Clyde Snow, Chief of the Physical Anthropology Section 
at the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Areomedical Institute in 
Oklahoma City, examined the skeletal remains, and determined the 
remains to be one female, age 25-35 years. No known individuals were 
identified. The human remains and funerary objects were stored at the 
Fort Sill Museum. The 1,581 associated funerary objects are 1 horse 
trapping, 3 metal rings, 2 metal rivets, 17 metal nails, 53 metal 
bracelets, 1 metal pail, 1,500 glass beads, 1 bone bead, 2 fragments of 
animal bone, and 1 leather/cloth fragment.
    Based on examination, the burial dates to between 1869 and 1890. 
The skeleton was determined to be Native American based on skeletal 
morphology, diagnostic metric traits, burial context, and artifact 
associations. The burial was located in the bed of a ravine and covered 
with large flat stones. The archaeological evidence, including the 
burial context and funerary associations, support a cultural 
affiliation to the Comanche tribe. The size, design, and decoration of 
bracelets, rivets, and buttons found with this burial are similar to 
those found in burials of known Comanche origin. Additionally, 
ethnographic and historic reports include the use of ravine burials in 
that area by the Comanche, while also reporting that the Kiowa did not 
use such burial places.
    The Comanche were a Shoshonean group originally residing along the 
upper Yellowstone and Platte Rivers. Around the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, they began to migrate onto the Southern Plains, 
between the Apache to the west and the Pawnee and Wichita to the east. 
After 1750, the geographic area of present day Fort Sill was 
increasingly controlled by the Comanche and the Kiowa. In 1834, a major 
U.S. expedition into the Southern Plains, the Dragoon Expedition, made 
contact with Comanche villages located in the vicinity of Medicine 
Bluff and Medicine Creek, near the present-day site of Fort Sill. In 
1867, a land cession gave the Kiowa and Comanche a reservation in 
Oklahoma that included the area near Fort Sill. Fort Sill was 
established in 1869, with the Kiowa Comanche Indian Agency outside the 
gate of the Fort. Fort Sill was expanded in 1897 with 27,000 acres of 
land from the Kiowa Comanche reservation, in order to accommodate 
incoming Apache prisoners. Finally, the reservation land was open to 
allotments in 1901, with 160 acres of land allotted to each Native 
American inhabitant. The Comanche chose the lands in the south near 
Fort Sill, with the Kiowa choosing settlements in the north. 
Archaeological, anthropological, historical, and geographical lines of 
evidence support a cultural affiliation with the Comanche tribe.

Determinations Made by the U.S. Department of Defense, Army, Fort Sill 
Museum

    Officials of the Fort Sill Museum have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), the human remains described 
in this notice represent the physical remains of one individual of 
Native American ancestry.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 1,581 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.
     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 Comanche 
Nation.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes itself to be 
culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Scott A. Neel, Director, Fort Sill National 
Historic Landmark and Museum, U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence, 
Fort Sill, OK 73503, telephone (580) 442-6570, before

[[Page 57113]]

October 17, 2012. On April 12, 2004, the human remains and associated 
funerary objects from the Jared site (34CM221) were repatriated to the 
Comanche Nation.
    The Fort Sill Museum is responsible for notifying the Comanche 
Nation, Oklahoma, that this notice has been published.

    Dated: August 10, 2012.
Melanie O'Brien,
Acting Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2012-22747 Filed 9-14-12; 8:45 am]
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