[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 58 (Monday, March 26, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12960-12962]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-06056]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-CR-NAGPRA-21578; PPWOCRADN0, PCU00RP14.R50000; OMB Control 
Number 1024-0144]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Regulations

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
National Park Service is proposing to renew an information collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
May 25, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments on the information collection request 
(ICR) by mail to Tim Goddard, Information Collection Clearance Officer, 
National Park Service, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, MS-242, Reston, VA 
20192; or by email to [email protected]. Please reference OMB Control 
Number 1024-0144 in the subject line of your comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information 
about this ICR, contact Melanie O'Brien, Manager, National Native 
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Program, by 
email at melanie_o'[email protected], or by telephone at 202-354-2204.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We (National Park Service, NPS), in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, provide the 
general public and other Federal agencies with an opportunity to 
comment on proposed, revised, and continuing collections of 
information. This helps us assess the impact of our information 
collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. It 
also helps the public understand our information collection 
requirements and provide the requested data in the desired format.
    We are soliciting comments on the proposed ICR that is described 
below. We are especially interested in public comment addressing the 
following issues: (1) Is the collection necessary for the proper 
functions of the NPS National Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Program; (2) will this information be 
processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is the estimate of burden 
accurate; (4) how might the NPS National NAGPRA Program enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(5) how might the NPS National NAGPRA Program minimize the burden of 
this collection on the respondents, including through the use of 
information technology.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. We will include or summarize each comment in our 
response to OMB to approve this ICR. Before including your address, 
phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information 
in your

[[Page 12961]]

comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including your 
personal identifying information--may be made publicly available at any 
time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number.
    Title of Collection: Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Regulations, 43 CFR part 10.
    OMB Control Number: 1024-0144.
    Form Number: None.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Any institution or State or local 
government agency (including any institution of higher learning) that 
receives Federal funds and has possession of, or control over, Native 
American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of 
cultural patrimony (``museum'').
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 203.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 4,597.
    Total Number of Annual Respondents: 139.
    Estimated Completion Time per Response: Varies.

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                                                                     Estimated
                                                   Total number     completion     Total number    Total number
             Information collection                  of annual       time  per       of annual       of annual
                                                     responses       response      burden hours     respondents
                                                                      (hrs.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summaries (initial).............................               6             100             600               6
Summaries (updated/amended).....................              14              10             140              14
Inventories (initial)...........................              11             200           2,200              11
Inventories (updated/amended)...................              31              10             310              31
Notices of Inventory Completion.................              96              10             960            * 45
Notices of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items..              38              10             380            * 26
Correcting Previously Published Notices.........               7               1               7             * 6
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals......................................             203  ..............           4,597             139
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Typically, a respondent will submit one response. However, some respondents submit multiple responses in one
  year.

    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Frequency of Collection: On occasion.
    Total Estimated Annual Non-hour Burden Cost: None.
    Abstract: One of the purposes of the Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA, the Act) is to provide for the 
repatriation of Native American human remains and funerary objects, 
sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony (``cultural items'') 
to lineal descendants, and affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations. The Secretary of the Interior has several 
responsibilities under the Act, which include promulgating regulations 
to carry out the Act and publishing notices in the Federal Register.
    Under NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, a museum must 
compile an inventory of Native American human remains and associated 
funerary objects under its control and, to the extent possible based on 
the information it possesses, identify the geographical and cultural 
affiliation of the human remains and funerary objects. Inventories must 
be completed in consultation with Indian tribal government and Native 
Hawaiian organization officials, and traditional religious leaders. The 
NPS National NAGPRA Program, on behalf of the Secretary, collects 
information pertinent for determining the cultural affiliation and 
geographical origin of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects, including descriptions, acquisition data, and consultation 
concerning the human remains and objects, and it makes this information 
publicly available. The NPS National NAGPRA Program also provides 
sample inventories to assist museums.
    The Act and its implementing regulations require a museum to 
describe in a summary its holding or collection of Native American 
objects that might be unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, or 
objects of cultural patrimony. The summary is followed by consultation 
on the identity and cultural affiliation of objects with Indian tribal 
government and Native Hawaiian organization officials, and traditional 
religious leaders. The NPS National NAGPRA Program, on behalf of the 
Secretary, collects information pertinent for determining the cultural 
affiliation and identity of objects (as cultural items), including 
descriptions, acquisition data, and parties invited to consult about 
the objects, and it makes this information publicly available. The NPS 
National NAGPRA Program also provides sample summaries to assist 
museums.
    After the expiration of the statutory deadlines for completing an 
inventory and a summary, if a museum receives a new holding or 
discovers an unreported current holding, or has control of cultural 
items that are, or are likely to be, culturally affiliated with a newly 
federally recognized Indian tribe, the museum must update or amend its 
inventory or summary. The NPS National NAGPRA Program, on behalf of the 
Secretary, collects information pertinent for determining the cultural 
affiliation and geographical origin of the human remains and associated 
funerary objects (in the inventory update), or for determining the 
cultural affiliation and identity of objects as cultural items (in the 
summary update), and it makes this information publicly available.
    If a museum determines the cultural affiliation of human remains 
and associated funerary objects in an inventory, the museum must draft 
and send a written notice of its determination to the affected Indian 
tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, and copy the NPS National 
NAGPRA Program. The NPS National NAGPRA Program, in turn, publishes 
this notice of inventory completion in the Federal Register on behalf 
of the Secretary. Similarly, a museum must draft and send a notice of 
inventory completion to the NPS National NAGPRA Program for publication 
in the Federal Register where human remains determined by the museum to 
be culturally unidentifiable are claimed by an Indian tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization having a geographical affiliation to the human 
remains. The information in a notice of inventory completion collected 
by the NPS National NAGPRA Program is based on the information in the 
museum's completed inventory. The

[[Page 12962]]

NPS National NAGPRA Program provides templates for notices of inventory 
completion to assist museums in drafting these notices.
    After receiving a request from an Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian 
organization to repatriate an object described in a summary, if a 
museum determines that the object being requested is an unassociated 
funerary object, a sacred object, or an object of cultural patrimony, 
and is culturally affiliated with the requestor, the museum drafts and 
sends a notice of intent to repatriate cultural items to the NPS 
National NAGPRA Program, which publishes the notice in the Federal 
Register. The information in a notice of intent to repatriate cultural 
items collected by the NPS National NAGPRA Program is based on the 
information in the museum's summary, and is supplemented by information 
pertinent to the identity and cultural affiliation of the cultural 
item. The NPS National NAGPRA Program provides a template for a notice 
of intent to repatriate cultural items to assist museums in drafting 
this notice.
    A museum that revises its decision in a way that changes the number 
or cultural affiliation of cultural items listed in a notice that was 
previously published in the Federal Register must draft and send a 
correction notice to the NPS National NAGPRA Program, which publishes 
the correction notice in the Federal Register. The NPS National NAGPRA 
Program provides a template for a correction notice to assist museums 
in drafting this notice.
    The NPS National NAGPRA Program collects and makes publicly 
available the above described information in order to ensure the 
protection of the constitutional due process rights of lineal 
descendants, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations related to 
property. As evidence of a museum's compliance with the Act, the 
information collected by the NPS National NAGPRA Program serves the 
reporting museum because only where a museum repatriates a cultural 
item in good faith pursuant to the Act will it be immune from liability 
for claims by an aggrieved party or for claims of breach of fiduciary 
duty, public trust, or violations of state law that are inconsistent 
with the provisions of NAGPRA.
    Authorities: The authorities for this action are the Native 
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA; 25 U.S.C. 3001 
et seq.), NAGPRA Regulations (43 CFR part 10), and the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

Tim Goddard,
Information Collection Clearance Officer, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. 2018-06056 Filed 3-23-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4312-52-P