[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 165 (Monday, August 28, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40801-40802]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-18186]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-23749; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of 
the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, DC, and Arizona 
State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
and Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, in consultation with 
the appropriate Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, have 
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 Bureau of Indian Affairs. 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 Bureau of Indian Affairs at 
the address in this notice by September 27, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Anna Pardo, NAGPRA Coordinator, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
12220 Sunrise Valley Drive, Room 6084, Reston, VA 20191, telephone 
(703) 390-6343, 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 U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian 
Affairs, Washington, DC, and in the physical custody of the Arizona 
State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (ASM) 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

    In the years 1963 through 1977, 2,542 cultural items were removed 
from the Grasshopper Pueblo site AZ P:14:1(ASM), in Navajo County, AZ. 
The items were removed during legally authorized excavations conducted 
by the University of Arizona Archeological Field School. Archeological 
collections from the site were brought to the museum at the end of each 
field season. The 2,542 unassociated funerary objects are 179 animal 
bones, 6 bone awls, 1 botanical specimen, 13 ceramic bowls, 12 ceramic 
jars, 1,677 ceramic sherds, 19 ceramic vessels, 16 ceramic vessel 
fragments, 8 chipped stone cores, 502 chipped stone flakes, 3 flotation 
samples, 2 hammerstones, 2 hand stones, 24 lots of mineral, 1 mosaicked 
shell, 4 polishing stones, 5 pollen samples, 5 shell beads, 14 shell 
bracelets, 3 shell pendants, 1 shell tinkler, 2 snail shells, 5 soil 
samples, 4 stone artifacts, 1 stone blade, 3 stone knives, 2 stone 
pendants, 9 stone projectile points, 1 stone projectile point fragment, 
1 stone scraper, 1 tree ring sample, 9 worked bone artifacts, 1 worked 
ceramic sherd, 1 worked shell, 3 worked stones, and 2 worked stone 
flakes.
    Site AZ P:14:1(ASM) is a large village site containing 
approximately 500 rooms in more than a dozen stone room blocks arranged 
around three main plazas. The site has been dated from A.D. 1275-1400, 
based on tree ring dates, architectural forms, building technology, and 
ceramic styles. These characteristics, the mortuary pattern, and other 
items of material culture are consistent with the archeologically-
described Upland Mogollon or prehistoric Western Pueblo tradition.
    In 1932, 2 cultural items were removed from the Canyon Creek Ruin, 
AZ C:2:8(GP)/V:2:1(ASM), in Gila County, AZ during legally authorized 
excavations conducted by the Gila Pueblo Foundation, under the 
direction of Emil Haury. In 1950, the Gila Pueblo Foundation closed and 
the collections were transferred to the Arizona State Museum. The 2 
unassociated funerary objects are 2 lots of organic material.
    Site AZ C:2:8(GP)/AZV:2:1(ASM) is a cliff dwelling site of 
approximately 140 rooms. Based on the ceramic and perishable artifact 
assemblage, the site is dated to A.D. 1300 to 1400. The ceramic and 
architectural forms are consistent with the archeologically described 
Upland Mogollon or prehistoric Western Pueblo traditions.
    A detailed discussion of the basis for cultural affiliation of 
archeological sites in the region where the above sites are located may 
be found in ``Cultural Affiliation Assessment of White Mountain Apache 
Tribal Lands (Fort Apache Indian Reservation),'' by John R. Welch and 
T.J. Ferguson (2005). To summarize, archeologists have used the terms 
Upland Mogollon or prehistoric Western Pueblo to define the 
archeological complex represented by the sites described above. 
Material culture characteristics of these traditions include a temporal 
progression from earlier pit houses to later masonry pueblos, villages 
organized in room blocks of contiguous dwellings associated with 
plazas, rectangular kivas, polished and paint-decorated ceramics, 
unpainted corrugated ceramics, inhumation burials, cradleboard cranial 
deformation, grooved stone axes, and bone artifacts. The combination of 
the material culture attributes and a subsistence pattern that included 
hunting and gathering augmented by maize agriculture helps to identify 
an earlier group. Archeologists have also remarked that there are 
strong similarities between this earlier group and present-day Tribes 
included in the Western Pueblo ethnographic group, especially the Hopi 
Tribe of Arizona and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New 
Mexico. The similarities in ceramic traditions, burial practices, 
architectural forms, and settlement patterns have led archeologists to 
believe that the prehistoric inhabitants of the Mogollon Rim region 
migrated north and west to the Hopi mesas, and north and east to the 
Zuni River Valley. Certain objects found in Upland Mogollon 
archeological sites have been found to have strong resemblances with 
ritual paraphernalia that are used in continuing religious practices by 
the Hopi and Zuni. Some petroglyphs on the Fort Apache Indian 
Reservation have also persuaded archeologists of continuities between 
the earlier identified group and current-day Western Pueblo people. 
Biological information from AZ P:14:1(ASM) supports the view that the 
prehistoric occupants of the Upland Mogollon region had migrated from 
various locations to the north and west of the region.
    Hopi and Zuni oral traditions parallel the archeological evidence 
for migration. Migration figures prominently in Hopi oral tradition,

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which refers to the ancient sites, pottery, stone tools, petroglyphs, 
and other artifacts left behind by the ancestors as ``Hopi 
Footprints.'' This migration history is complex and detailed, and 
includes traditions relating specific clans to the Mogollon region. 
Hopi cultural advisors have also identified medicinal and culinary 
plants at archeological sites in the region. Their knowledge about 
these plants was passed down to them from the ancestors who inhabited 
these ancient sites. Migration is also an important attribute of Zuni 
oral tradition and includes accounts of Zuni ancestors passing through 
the Upland Mogollon region. The ancient villages mark the routes of 
these migrations. Zuni cultural advisors remark that the ancient sites 
were not abandoned. People returned to these places from time to time, 
either to reoccupy them or for religious pilgrimages--a practice that 
has continued to the present day. Archeologists have found ceramic 
evidence at shrines in the Upland Mogollon region that confirms these 
reports. Zuni cultural advisors have names for plants endemic to the 
Mogollon region that do not grow on the Zuni Reservation. They also 
have knowledge about traditional medicinal and ceremonial uses for 
these resources, which has been passed down to them from their 
ancestors. Furthermore, Hopi and Zuni cultural advisors have recognized 
that their ancestors may have been co-resident at some of the sites in 
this region during their ancestral migrations.
    There are differing points of view regarding the possible presence 
of Apache people in the Upland Mogollon region during the time that 
these sites were occupied. Some Apache traditions describe interactions 
with Ancestral Pueblo people during this time, but according to these 
stories, Puebloan people and Apache people were regarded as having 
separate identities. The White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache 
Reservation, Arizona, does not claim cultural affiliation with the 
human remains and associated funerary objects from this site. As 
reported by Welch and Ferguson (2005), consultations between the White 
Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona, and the 
Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico & Utah; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; 
and Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico, have indicated that that none of 
these Tribes wish to pursue claims of affiliation with sites on White 
Mountain Apache Tribal lands. Finally, the White Mountain Apache Tribe 
of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona, supports the repatriation of 
human remains and associated funerary objects from these sites and is 
ready to assist the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico, in their reburial.

Determinations Made by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of 
Indian Affairs, and the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona

    Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Arizona State Museum 
have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 2,544 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 Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni 
Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico.

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 Anna Pardo, NAGPRA Coordinator, Bureau of 
Indian Affairs, Reston, 12220 Sunrise Valley Drive, VA 20191, telephone 
(703) 390-6343, email [email protected], by September 27, 2017. After 
that date, if no additional claimants have come forward, transfer of 
control of the unassociated funerary objects to the Hopi Tribe of 
Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico may proceed.
    The Arizona State Museum is responsible for notifying the Hopi 
Tribe of Arizona; White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache 
Reservation, Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New 
Mexico, that this notice has been published.

    Dated: July 11, 2017.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2017-18186 Filed 8-25-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P