[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 20 (Tuesday, January 30, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4257-4259]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-01721]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0024479; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


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

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology 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 Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology. 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 Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology 
at the address in this notice by March 1, 2018.

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 human remains and 
associated funerary objects under the control of the Robert S. Peabody 
Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. The human remains 
and associated funerary objects were removed from the Hornblower II and 
Abel's Hill sites in Dukes County, MA.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative

[[Page 4258]]

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 and associated funerary 
objects was made by the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology 
professional staff in consultation with representatives of the 
Wampanoag Repatriation Confederacy, representing the Mashpee Wampanoag 
Tribe (previously listed as the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal 
Council, Inc.) and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), as well 
as the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation (a non-federally recognized 
Indian group).

History and Description of the Remains

    In 1982, human remains representing, at minimum, one individual 
were removed from the Hornblower II site in Aquinnah, Dukes County, MA, 
by James J. Richardson III and James B. Petersen. The human remains are 
fragmentary, likely as a result of being impacted by earth-moving 
equipment. The human remains were transferred to the Robert S. Peabody 
Museum of Archaeology on November 12, 2012. The individual is an adult 
male, aged 30-45 years old. No known individual was identified. The 189 
associated funerary objects are 1 unidentified bird bone; 3 
unidentified mammal bone; 1 quartz core frag; 1 rhyolite biface 
fragment; 114 quartz flakes; 1 quartz flake; 3 pottery sherds; 1 bag of 
burial pit floatation sample, including soil, pebbles, shell, and 
animal bone fragments; 1 large quartz nodule; 3 bone or tree bark 
fragments; 1 large chunk white quartz; 8 marine shells and soil from 
feature fill; 1 large quartz flake; 1 possible lithic tool; and 49 
quartz flakes.
    Information about the Hornblower II site is found in William A. 
Ritchie's 1969 book ``The Archaeology of Martha's Vineyard: A Framework 
for the Prehistory of Southern New England,'' and in field notes by 
James J. Richardson III and James B. Petersen, on file at the Robert S. 
Peabody Museum of Archaeology, and in the files of the Massachusetts 
Historical Commission (site #19-DK-44). The Hornblower II site is a 
shell mound located on the north shore of Squibnocket Pond on Martha's 
Vineyard, with midden deposits ranging from two to nearly four feet in 
thickness over approximately 3,400 square feet. Ritchie's excavations 
in the 1960s documented four major strata. Radiocarbon dates and 
artifacts found during the 1960s and 1980s excavations indicate 
occupation from the Archaic through the Late Woodland periods, 
approximately 5,500 to 500 years ago. No burials were identified during 
Ritchie's excavations. James J. Richardson reports that the human 
burial was discovered outside of the midden area during the 1982 
excavations. The burial was found during shovel testing to delimit the 
site boundaries. Human remains were observed in Test Pit #11, and a 
five-foot-square excavation unit designated N70E25 was made to recover 
the human remains. The field notes state that ``it now appears to have 
been a primary flexed burial heading southwest, facing southeast toward 
Squibnocket Pond.'' The notes also state that the burial was in a 
shallow pit that was difficult to discern due to disturbance by 
plowing. According to the excavators, the pit had originally been used 
for cooking. Physical anthropologist Harley A. Erickson made an 
inventory of the human remains in October of 2014, noting that the 
appearance and morphology of the human remains are consistent with 
Native American ancestry. In the 1980s, the original excavators 
submitted samples of marine shell found in association with the burial 
for radiocarbon dating, but the results were inconclusive. Artifacts 
found in the burial pit indicate a Late Woodland period date.
    Sometime in the 1980s, human remains representing, at minimum, one 
individual were removed from an unrecorded site at Abel's Hill in 
Chilmark, Dukes County, MA, by James B. Richardson III and Richard Burt 
on behalf of the Chilmark Police Department. The human remains are 
nearly complete, and are in a good state of preservation. They were 
transferred to the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology on November 
12, 2012. The individual is an adult male, aged 24-30 years old. No 
known individual was identified. No associated funerary objects are 
present.
    Very little documentation is available on the Abel's Hill site. 
James B. Richardson III relates that the burial was discovered during 
the excavation of a septic system at a private residence in the 1980s. 
The location was not a known archeological site. The Chilmark Police 
Department contacted avocational archeologist Richard Burt, who, with 
assistance from James B. Richardson III, excavated the burial. The 
human remains were retained by Richardson and curated with material 
from the Hornblower II site, prior to transfer to the Robert S. Peabody 
Museum of Archaeology in 2012. Physical anthropologist Harley A. 
Erickson made an inventory of the remains in October of 2014, noting 
strong morphological traits on the cranial and postcranial remains 
consistent with Native American ancestry.
    The Hornblower II and Abel's Hill sites lie within the homeland of 
the Wampanoag (see Frank Speck, ``Territorial Subdivisions and 
Boundaries of the Wampanoag, Massachusett, and Nauset Indians, Indian 
Notes and Monographs No. 44'' (1928), Bert Salwen, ``Indians of 
Southern New England and Long Island: Early Period'' in ``Handbook of 
North American Indians: Northeast,'' (Bruce G. Trigg, ed., 1978), and 
Robert S. Grumet, ``Historic Contact: Indian Peoples and Colonists in 
Today's Northeastern United States in the Sixteenth through Eighteenth 
Centuries,'' 117-121, 129-133 (1995)). Linguistically, this area is 
within the so-called n-dialect shared by Massachusett, Wampanoag, and 
Pokanoket speakers (see Kathleen J. Bragdon, ``Native Peoples of 
Southern New England, 1650-1775,'' 22-23 (2009)). The coastal groups 
already in this area by the Late Woodland period (circa A.D. 1000) or 
even the Late Archaic, are likely the ancestors of the Wampanoag people 
encountered by the English in the seventeenth century. Geography, 
archeology, linguistics, oral tradition, and history provide multiple 
lines of evidence that demonstrate longstanding ties between the 
Wampanoag and the area around Aquinnah and Chilmark and affirm 
affiliation with the burials at the Hornblower II and Abel's Hill 
sites.

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(9), the human remains described 
in this notice represent the physical remains of two individuals of 
Native American ancestry.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 189 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 Mashpee 
Wampanoag Tribe

[[Page 4259]]

(previously listed as the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, 
Inc.) and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).

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 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 March 1, 2018. 
After that date, if no additional requestors have come forward, 
transfer of control of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects to the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe (previously listed as the 
Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, Inc.) and the Wampanoag Tribe 
of Gay Head (Aquinnah), and, if joined to one or more of the culturally 
affiliated tribes, the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, a non-
federally recognized Indian group, may proceed.
    The Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology is responsible for 
notifying the Wampanoag Repatriation Confederacy, representing the 
Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe (previously listed as the Mashpee 
Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, Inc.) and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay 
Head (Aquinnah), as well as the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation (a 
non-federally recognized Indian group) that this notice has been 
published.

    Dated: October 16, 2017.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.

    Editorial Note: This document was received at the Office of the 
Federal Register on January 25, 2018.

[FR Doc. 2018-01721 Filed 1-29-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4312-52-P