[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 139 (Monday, July 21, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42357-42358]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-17094]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-16066; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Bureau of Land Management, Green 
River District, Vernal Field Office, Vernal, UT

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Green River District, 
Vernal Field Office, Vernal, UT,

[[Page 42358]]

has completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary 
objects, in consultation with the appropriate Indian tribes or Native 
Hawaiian organizations, and has determined that there is a cultural 
affiliation between the human remains and associated funerary objects 
and present-day Indian tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations. Lineal 
descendants or representatives of any Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian 
organization not identified in this notice that wish to request 
transfer of control of these human remains and associated funerary 
objects should submit a written request to the BLM, Vernal Field 
Office. If no additional requestors come forward, transfer of control 
of the human remains and associated funerary objects 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 
request transfer of control of these human remains and associated 
funerary objects should submit a written request with information in 
support of the request to the BLM, Vernal Field Office, at the address 
in this notice by August 20, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Michael Stiewig, BLM, Green River District, Vernal Field 
Office, 170 South 500 East, Vernal, UT 84078, telephone (435) 781-3400, 
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. 3003, of the completion of an inventory of human remains and 
associated funerary objects under the control of the BLM, Green River 
District, Vernal Field Office, Vernal, UT. The human remains and 
associated funerary objects were removed from site 42UN1225, in Uintah 
County, UT.
    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 was made by the BLM, 
Vernal Field Office, professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray 
Reservation, Utah.

History and Description of the Remains

    On March 10 and 11, 1982, human remains representing, at minimum, 
one individual were removed from site 42UN1255, near Roosevelt, in 
Uintah County, UT, by Richard Fike and F.R. Hauck, of Archaeological 
Environmental Research Corporation (AERC), under contract with the BLM, 
and were assisted by Blaine Phillips and Craig Harmon, BLM 
archeologists. The site contained a burial, located within a fractured 
monolith crevice. No known individuals were identified. The majority of 
the human remains were reinterred on April 27, 1983, by the Ute Indian 
Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah, at Cactus Flat Cemetery, 
near Ouray, UT.
    Between December 2012 and March 2013, an investigation by Vernal 
Field Office archeologists revealed that additional associated funerary 
objects and human remains from site 42UN1225 remained under the control 
of the BLM. A single lot of beads was discovered in a Vernal Field 
Office storage facility during a routine inventory. Additional 
associated funerary objects were located at the Utah Field House of 
Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal, UT, and human bones were 
discovered with the objects. The human remains include two phalanges, 
one carpal bone, and one calcified hyoid. The remains have been 
determined to belong to a Native American male, approximately 27-30 
years of age. Based on a non-invasive analysis of the human remains and 
associated funerary objects, the burial from site 42UN1225 dates from 
1850 to 1870.
    The 271 associated funerary objects are one small piece of worked 
juniper wood; two clay tobacco pipe fragments; 40 various individual 
glass ``wound'' beads; seven leather cordage fragments; seven minute 
snail shells; one tan clay rounded ball; one zinc metal crescent; two 
saddle wooden element fragments; one iron axe bit; one wooden axe 
handle; eight leather saddle fragments with an iron buckle attached; 
one iron ring-spade bit; one iron ``S''-hook; seven beaded leather 
fragments; two cloth backed leather fragments; two red stained cotton 
textile fragments; five leather thong fragments; 42 leather fragments; 
nine leather strap fragments; 10 unidentified textile fragments; 25 
wool textile fragments; 10 buffalo hide fragments; three cotton print 
textile fragments; two cotton striped shirt fragments; 25 cotton canvas 
textile fragments; eight cotton textile fragments; five human hair 
braid fragments; two tooled leather fragments; three cotton denim 
textile fragments; six lots of glass seed beads; one lot of glass 
``wound'' beads; three strands of glass seed beads; three bunches of 
human hair; two lots of loose human hair; 14 brass buttons; three brass 
tacks; two iron nails; two iron rings; and two lots of assorted faunal 
bone.

Determinations Made by the BLM, Green River District, Vernal Field 
Office, Vernal, UT

    Officials of the BLM, Green River District, Vernal Field Office, 
Vernal, UT, 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 271 objects 
described in this notice 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 Ute 
Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
request transfer of control of these human remains and associated 
funerary objects should submit a written request with information in 
support of the request to Michael Stiewig, BLM, Green River District, 
Vernal Field Office, 170 South 500 East, Vernal, UT 84078, telephone 
(435) 781-3400, email [email protected], by August 20, 2014. After that 
date, if no additional requestors have come forward, transfer of 
control of the human remains and associated funerary objects to the Ute 
Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah, may proceed.
    The BLM, Vernal Field Office, is responsible for notifying the Ute 
Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah, that this notice 
has been published.

    Dated: June 18, 2014.
David Tarler,
Acting Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2014-17094 Filed 7-18-14; 8:45 am]
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