[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 81 (Tuesday, April 28, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23582-23583]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-09911]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-18066; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology has completed an 
inventory of 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 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 associated funerary 
objects should submit a written request to the Robert S. Peabody Museum 
of Archaeology. If no additional requestors come forward, transfer of 
control of the 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 associated funerary objects should 
submit a written request with information in support of the request to 
the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology at the address in this 
notice by May 28, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Dr. Ryan J. Wheeler, Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology, Phillips Academy, 180 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810, 
telephone (978) 749-4490, 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 associated funerary 
objects under the control of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. The associated funerary 
objects were removed from the Nevin site at Blue Hill in Hancock 
County, ME.
    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 associated funerary objects. The National Park Service is not 
responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the associated funerary objects was made 
by the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology professional staff in 
consultation with representatives of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs 
(previously listed as the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians); Houlton 
Band of Maliseet Indians; Passamaquoddy Tribe; and the Penobscot Nation 
(previously listed as the Penobscot Tribe of Maine).

History and Description of the Associated Funerary Objects

    In 1936 and 1937, human remains representing, at minimum, 19 
individuals were removed from the Nevin site, Hancock County, ME. The 
Nevin site is located on Mill Island in the town of Blue Hill, along 
Blue Hill Bay. The site was investigated by Douglas Byers and Frederick 
Johnson as part of their study of the Nevin shell mound from 1936 
through 1940; in March 1941, the human remains were transferred on loan 
to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard 
University, Cambridge, MA (a completely separate institution from the 
Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and referred to here as the 
Harvard Peabody) and control was transferred in two separate instances 
on June 28, 1989 and August 8, 1997. The Robert S. Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology retained control of the associated funerary objects. Byers 
describes the excavation of twelve graves containing the burials of 22 
to 27 individuals; in some cases human remains were not collected. The 
Harvard Peabody has detailed information on the human remains; also see 
the Harvard Peabody's two entries for ``Bluehill Falls, Nevin 
Shellheap'' in the Culturally Unidentifiable (CUI) Native American 
Inventories Database maintained on the National NAGPRA Program Web 
site. The 462 associated funerary objects are stone adze (4), antler 
tool (2), birch bark fragment (9), pileated woodpecker beak (1), beaver 
tooth and tooth fragments (16), stone biface (1), faunal remains, teeth 
and bone fragments (188), animal teeth and fragments (31), antler 
flaking tool (1), bone flaking tool (1), bird bone flute (1), harpoon 
foreshaft (3), stone gouge (3), hammerstone (6), animal tooth, incisor 
(4), mink jaw fragments (2), modified mineral fragments, iron (1), red 
ochre and soil (1), bone pendant (2), perforated animal teeth and 
fragments (34), perforators, awls, daggers, pikes, knives, and needles 
of bone, including fragments (100), stone plummet (6), bone point (2), 
stone bayonet and fragments (2), bone harpoons (9), stone projectile 
point (1), polishing stone (1), iron pyrites (9), scraper or flesher of 
bone (1), soil sample (2), swordfish rostrum (1), deer antler socket 
(1), unmodified stone (1), porpoise vertebra and fragments (12), and 
hammerstone and iron pyrites with fragments (3). An additional 52 
associated funerary objects are currently missing; the missing 
associated funerary objects are beaver tooth (2), biface (3), animal 
bone fragment (4), stone gouge (1), miscellaneous faunal remains (18), 
perforated animal tooth fragments (16), bone perforator (6), and bone 
point (2).
    Information about the Nevin site is found in Douglas Byers's 
report, The Nevin Shellheap: Burials and Observations (1979), in the 
extensive fieldnotes of the Nevin site project on file at the Robert S. 
Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Lesley Shaw's article ``A Biocultural 
Evaluation of the Skeletal Population from the Nevin Site, Blue Hill, 
Maine'' (1988), Brian Robinson's Ph.D. dissertation Burial Ritual, 
Groups, and Boundaries on the Gulf of Maine, 8600-3800 B.P. (2001), 
Bruce J. Bourque and Harold W. Krueger's book chapter ``Dietary 
Reconstruction from Human Bone Isotopes for Five Coastal New England 
Populations'' (1994), and in the files of the Maine Historic 
Preservation

[[Page 23583]]

Commission, Maine Archaeological Survey (site #042.001). Byers suggests 
that the site was associated with a tidal reversing falls, an unusual 
natural phenomenon created by tidal flow funneled through a narrow 
channel, creating high standing waves. Radiocarbon dates and material 
culture affirm that the Nevin site burials are part of the Late Archaic 
Late Moorehead Burial Tradition, circa 4,000 to 3,700 B.P. Burial in a 
shell mound contributed to preservation of both the human remains and 
associated funerary objects of animal bone. Occupation of the Nevin 
shell mound pre-dates the interments and continued well into the 
Woodland period. At least one of the burials from Nevin is believed to 
be from this later Woodland occupation (see Shaw, 1988).
    Affiliation of the Nevin site associated funerary objects with the 
contemporary Wabanaki tribes is based on the following lines of 
evidence: geographical, biological, archeological, linguistic, 
folklore, and oral tradition. Oral history narratives that place the 
origins of the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet in Maine are 
often tied to specific places, landscape features, and ecological zones 
characteristic of Maine. These oral history narratives are significant 
in affiliating the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet with the 
Nevin site, especially as archeological evidence is equivocal regarding 
connections. Long term occupation and re-occupation of places, like the 
Nevin site, along with the significance of place-names, canoe and trail 
routes, and landscape features reaffirm Wabanaki connections and may 
reflect more ancient traditions of aggregation in certain places. 
Contemporary archeological theory recognizes that shell mounds, like 
the Nevin site, as symbolically charged and highly visible monuments, 
and also recognize the long temporal use of such monuments (for 
example, see Paul R. Fish et al. on shell mounds as persistent places 
in the 2013 book The Archaeology and Historical Ecology of Small Scale 
Economies, edited by Victor D. Thompson and James C. Waggoner Jr.). 
Continuity between ancient and contemporary indigenous people is 
supported by the long temporal occupation of the Nevin shell mound by 
both Archaic and Woodland cultures.
    Archeologist Bonnie Newsom (2008) conducted interviews with Maine 
archeologists regarding their ideas and opinions on NAGPRA and 
affiliation, especially as it relates to the 1000 year rule proposed by 
the Maine Historical Commission. The opinions of archeologists range 
from absolute certainty that there is no way to affiliate the Nevin 
site with contemporary tribes to more moderate views that recognize the 
archeological evidence is equivocal. One archeologist interviewed by 
Newsom expressed the opinion that the Susquehanna Tradition did 
represent an intrusion into the area that lasted for about 1,000 years 
and cited their research on bone artifacts to support this statement. 
That archeologist further noted it seemed unlikely that the more 
ancient population had been completely replaced by Susquehanna people.
    Anthropological perspectives regarding affiliation of the Wabanaki 
peoples with the cultures of the Late Archaic are consistent with the 
contemporary viewpoint of the Wabanaki. Three anthropologists who have 
worked closely with the Wabanaki were interviewed about the affiliation 
of contemporary Maine tribes and the Moorehead Tradition; all three 
stated that Wabanaki oral tradition is a reliable source of information 
and that narratives are often tied to specific landscape features, with 
language and stories reflecting a long presence in Maine. Additional 
information about each line of evidence used in this determination is 
on file at the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology.

Determinations Made by the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology

    Officials of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology have 
determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 514 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. Only the 462 associated funerary 
objects that have been located are eligible for transfer of control at 
this time.
     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 associated funerary objects and the Aroostook Band of Micmacs 
(previously listed as the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians); Houlton 
Band of Maliseet Indians; Passamaquoddy Tribe; and the Penobscot Nation 
(previously listed as the Penobscot Tribe of Maine).

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 associated funerary objects should 
submit a written request with information in support of the request to 
Dr. Ryan J. Wheeler, Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips 
Academy, 180 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810, telephone (978) 749-4490, 
email [email protected], by May 28, 2015. After that date, if no 
additional requestors have come forward, transfer of control of the 
associated funerary objects to the Aroostook Band of Micmacs 
(previously listed as the Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians); Houlton 
Band of Maliseet Indians; Passamaquoddy Tribe; and the Penobscot Nation 
(previously listed as the Penobscot Tribe of Maine) may proceed.
    The Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology is responsible for 
notifying the Aroostook Band of Micmacs (previously listed as the 
Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians); Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians; 
Passamaquoddy Tribe; and the Penobscot Nation (previously listed as the 
Penobscot Tribe of Maine) that this notice has been published.

    Dated: April 7, 2015.
Mariah Soriano,
Acting Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2015-09911 Filed 4-27-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4312-50-P