[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6921-6922]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-02305]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-14793; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Art Collection and 
Galleries, Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The staff of the Art Collection and Galleries of Sweet Briar 
College, 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 Art 
Collection and Galleries of Sweet Briar College. 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 Art Collection and Galleries 
of Sweet Briar College at the address in this notice by March 7, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Dr. Karol A. Lawson, Director, Art Collection and Galleries, 
Pannell 208, Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA 24595, telephone 
(434) 381-6248, 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 Art Collection and Galleries, Sweet Briar College, Sweet 
Briar, VA, 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

    The Art Collection and Galleries staff at Sweet Briar College have 
identified eight ceramic vessels in the permanent collection as being 
unassociated funerary objects from the archeological site known as 
Nodena, located in Mississippi County, AR. In addition, the staff have 
identified three ceramic fragments comprising a single object and one 
intact ceramic vessel as being unassociated funerary objects from 
burials in Mississippi County, AR. Therefore, there are 10 unassociated 
funerary objects from Mississippi County, AR, known to be at Sweet 
Briar College.
    In 1932, hundreds of cultural items were removed from the Nodena 
site in Mississippi County, AR, by Walter B. Jones of the Alabama 
Museum of Natural History, according to a published report, Nodena: An 
Account of 90 Years of Archaeological Investigation in Southeast 
Mississippi County, Arkansas (Fayetteville: Arkansas Archaeological 
Survey, 1989, ed. Dan Morse, p. 33). Jones excavated at the site in the 
winter and early spring of 1932, and he and his team recovered bottles, 
bowls, and jars (as well as other material) and human remains. Jones 
designated a portion of the ceramic objects he excavated at the Nodena 
site as a gift to Sweet Briar College, VA. This donation appears to 
have been initiated by Mrs. Lena Garth of Huntsville, AL, whose 
daughter and granddaughter both attended Sweet Briar College. According 
to letters in the Sweet Briar College acquisition files, Jones informed 
Harris. G. Hudson (Sweet Briar history department faculty) of the gift 
on May 31, 1932, and Sweet Briar College president, Dr. Meta Glass, 
informed Jones that the materials had been received on June 18, 1932. 
Nowhere in the extant 1932 letters and memos did Jones, Garth, Hudson, 
or Glass provide specific lists clearly delineating what individual 
artifacts, or even exactly how many, were included in the donation to 
Sweet Briar College.
    Between 1932 and the early 1990s, artifacts from this donation were 
displayed at various locations on Sweet Briar's campus, most notably in 
an academic building and then in the library. First under the care of 
the history department, the objects were then overseen by the library 
staff and the anthropology department faculty. In the early 1990s, care 
for the artifacts was turned over to the newly established art gallery. 
The Art Collection and Galleries staff at Sweet Briar College have 
identified 10 objects in the collection as unassociated funerary 
objects from this donation.
    Based on a telephone conversation between Karol Lawson of Sweet 
Briar College and Dr. Ann M. Early, Arkansas State Archaeologist, 
Arkansas Archaeological Survey, these ceramic objects appear to be 
affiliated with The Quapaw Tribe of Indians. Dr. Early explained that, 
though the Nodena site predates documented contact between European 
explorers and the Native Americans identifying themselves as Quapaw, 
archeologists working with this material today generally concur that 
The Quapaw Tribe of Indians is the

[[Page 6922]]

modern, Federally-recognized tribe most closely affiliated with the 
pre-historic cultural group that occupied the Nodena site. The staff of 
the Sweet Briar College Art Collection and Galleries inventoried and 
researched the provenance of the Nodena site objects in 2012, and 
distributed a NAGPRA summary to The Quapaw Tribe of Indians. Carrie 
Wilson, NAGPRA representative of The Quapaw Tribe of Indians, contacted 
Sweet Briar College in the summer of 2013, and subsequently requested 
repatriation of the objects.

Determinations Made by the Art Collection and Galleries of Sweet Briar 
College

    Officials of Sweet Briar College have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 10 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 Quapaw Tribe of Indians.

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 Dr. Karol A. Lawson, Director, Art 
Collection and Galleries, Pannell 208, Sweet Briar College, Sweet 
Briar, VA 24595, telephone (434) 381-6248, email [email protected] by 
March 7, 2014. After that date, if no additional claimants have come 
forward, transfer of control of the unassociated funerary objects to 
The Quapaw Tribe of Indians may proceed.
    The Art Collection and Galleries of Sweet Briar College is 
responsible for notifying The Quapaw Tribe of Indians that this notice 
has been published.

    Dated: January 9, 2014.
Mariah Soriano,
Acting Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2014-02305 Filed 2-4-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-P