[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 109 (Thursday, June 6, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34131-34132]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-13461]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-13010; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, Forest Service, San Juan National Forest, Durango, CO

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, San 
Juan National Forest, in consultation with the appropriate Indian 
tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, has determined that the 
cultural items listed in this notice meet the definition of 
unassociated funerary objects. Lineal descendants or representatives of 
any Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this 
notice that wish to claim these cultural items should submit a written 
request to the San Juan National Forest. If no additional claimants 
come forward, transfer of control of the cultural items to the lineal 
descendants, Indian tribes, or Native Hawaiian organizations stated in 
this notice may proceed.

DATES: Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian tribe or 
Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
claim these cultural items should submit a written request with 
information in support of the claim to the San Juan National Forest at 
the address in this notice by July 8, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Julie Coleman, Heritage Program Manager, San Juan National 
Forest, 15 Burnett Court, Durango, CO 81301, telephone (970) 385-1250, 
email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is here 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 under the 
control of the USDA Forest Service, San Juan National Forest, Durango, 
CO, 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 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 cultural items. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.

History and Description of the Cultural Items

    Between 1937 and 1938, 190 unassociated funerary objects were 
removed from the burial crevice and north cave shelter of the Falls 
Creek Rock Shelters (site 5LP1434), in Animas Valley, north of Durango, 
in LaPlata County, CO. In 1937, I. F. ``Zeke'' Flora conducted 
excavations without a permit in the burial crevice of Falls Creek Rock 
Shelters, on lands managed by the USDA Forest Service. In 1938, Earl 
Morris, Department of Archaeology, The Carnegie Institution, conducted 
excavations in the north and south cave shelters of Falls Creek Rock 
Shelters, under permit by the USDA. Flora and Morris both collected 
human remains and associated funerary objects, which are the subject of 
a separate Notice of Inventory Completion published in the Federal 
Register.
    A portion of the Flora collection at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters 
was housed at the Durango Public Library, Durango, CO. In 1945, it was 
transferred into the custody of the Mesa Verde National Park at the 
request of the Forest Service. Flora transferred additional items he 
collected at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters into the custody of the Mesa 
Verde National Park between 1962 and 1963. In November 2009, Mesa Verde 
National Park transferred these items to the Anasazi Heritage Center in 
Dolores, CO, where they are currently located. Additionally, in 1999, 
USDA Forest Service Law Enforcement seized a hide robe from Flora's 
daughter that had been collected by Flora at the Falls Creek Rock 
Shelters. Subsequently, in 2009, Bureau of Land Management Law 
Enforcement seized items in the custody of Vern Crites of Durango, CO, 
that were removed by Flora in 1937 at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters. 
Finally, in 2011, the Center for Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, 
transferred to the Anasazi Heritage Center a necklace that had been 
excavated by Flora at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters and given to Fort 
Lewis College by Helen Sloan Daniels.
    The Morris collection at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters, as well as 
a portion of the Flora collection from the site purchased by Morris for 
The Carnegie Institution, was curated by the Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and by 
the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, CO. In 
February 2009, these items were transferred into the custody of the 
Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, CO. Between February 2009 and March 
2013, a team of researchers at the Anasazi Heritage Center conducted an 
intensive non-destructive analysis of the all of the items collected by 
Morris and Flora at the Falls Creek Rock Shelters. This effort allowed 
researchers to re-associate human remains and funerary objects that had 
been separated and curated at different places, and to determine the 
unassociated funerary objects in the collection.
    In all, 190 objects are determined to be unassociated funerary 
objects from the Falls Creek Rock Shelters, including 188 objects from 
the burial crevice and 2 objects from the burial trench in the north 
cave shelter. The 188 objects from the burial crevice are 6 hide 
artifacts; 1 deer hair; 8 twined mats (all vegetal materials); 3 twined 
blankets (human and animal hair, yucca, hide, bark, and feathers); 12 
plant fiber bundles; 10 vegetal seeds, rind, and stem; 7 maize cobs; 3 
maize kernels; 18 pieces of cordage (includes human hair, yucca, and 
dog); 2 bullrush braids; 10 textiles (yucca, feathers, rabbit hair, and 
hide); 3 twined bags (yucca); 10 baskets; 1 bark slab; 1 cradleboard 
(oak/willow frame, sumac rods, and sinew wrap); 4 wrapped sticks (twigs 
wrapped with sinew and turkey feather quills); 1 hide sandal; 10 yucca 
sandals; 1 wood Atlatl fragment; 1 piece of worked wood; 1

[[Page 34132]]

wood awl; 1 hafted stone drill; 1 stone drill fragment; 1 chert 
scraper; 22 pieces of flaked stone (debitage, bifaces whole and 
fragments); 1 piece of mineral; 5 deer mandible ornaments; 1 bone 
ornament; 3 bone awls; 1 whole shell (Orehelix); 2 juniper seed beads; 
2 miscellaneous beads (unidentified material); 1 lignite bead; 4 shell 
beads or pendants; 1 pendant (unidentified material); a necklace 
containing 5 Olivella beads, 1 lignite pendant, and hide cordage; and a 
necklace containing 1 Olivella dama bead, 1 Olivella biplicata bead, 1 
Olivella spicata bead, 18 juniper seed beads, and yucca cordage. The 2 
objects from the burial trench in the north cave shelter are: 1 
chalcedony dart point, medial fragment, and 1 chert dart point, distal 
fragment.
    The Falls Creek Rock Shelters have been identified as a Basketmaker 
II habitation site, with the main occupation occurring between 300 B.C. 
and A.D. 400, based upon tree-ring dates. Archaeological, biological, 
and geographic evidence, along with oral traditions, indicate that the 
Basketmaker II populations of the Durango/Upper Animas District, in 
southwest Colorado, are culturally affiliated with the modern Puebloan 
people (Coleman 2013: 12). This includes the modern day tribes of the 
Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Kewa Pueblo, New Mexico (previously listed as 
the Pueblo of Santo Domingo); Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico (previously 
listed as the Pueblo of San Juan); Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; Pueblo 
of Cochiti, New Mexico; Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico; Pueblo of Jemez, 
New Mexico; Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico; Pueblo of Nambe, New Mexico; 
Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico; Pueblo of Pojoaque, New Mexico; Pueblo 
of San Felipe, New Mexico; Pueblo of San Ildefonso, New Mexico; Pueblo 
of Sandia, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa 
Clara, New Mexico; Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico; Pueblo of Tesuque, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico; Ysleta del Sur Pueblo of Texas; and 
the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico (hereafter referred 
to as ``The Tribes'').
    This determination is based upon the extensive review of currently 
available published and unpublished sources and information provided by 
Indian tribes during consultations. Archaeological evidence consists of 
chronological data, artifacts, and rock art. Recent DNA research also 
demonstrates a biological affiliation between Basketmaker II 
populations and modern Puebloans. Hopi and Zuni oral traditions provide 
additional information, including geographic evidence, for cultural 
affiliation between Basketmaker II and the present day Puebloan people.

Determinations Made by the USDA Forest Service, San Juan National 
Forest

    Officials of the San Juan National Forest have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 190 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 a specific burial site of a Native 
American individual.
     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 Tribes.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to claim 
these cultural items should submit a written request with information 
in support of the claim to Julie Coleman, Heritage Program Manager, San 
Juan National Forest, 15 Burnett Court, Durango, CO 81301, telephone 
(970) 385-1250, email [email protected], by July 8, 2013. After that 
date, if no additional claimants have come forward, transfer of control 
of the unassociated funerary objects to The Tribes may proceed.
    The San Juan National Forest is responsible for notifying the Hopi 
Tribe of Arizona; Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico; Kewa Pueblo, New 
Mexico (previously listed as the Pueblo of Santo Domingo); Navajo 
Nation, Arizona, New Mexico & Utah; Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico 
(previously listed as the Pueblo of San Juan); Pueblo of Acoma, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico; Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico; 
Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico; Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico; Pueblo of 
Nambe, New Mexico; Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico; Pueblo of Pojoaque, 
New Mexico; Pueblo of San Felipe, New Mexico; Pueblo of San Ildefonso, 
New Mexico; Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Ana, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico; Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico; 
Pueblo of Tesuque, New Mexico; Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico; Southern Ute 
Indian Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado; Ute Indian 
Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah; Ute Mountain Tribe of 
the Ute Mountain Reservation, Colorado, New Mexico & Utah; Ysleta del 
Sur Pueblo of Texas; and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New 
Mexico, that this notice has been published.

    Dated: May 6, 2013.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2013-13461 Filed 6-5-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-P