[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 201 (Wednesday, October 17, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52529-52530]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-22599]



[[Page 52529]]

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

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0026500; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Arizona State 
Parks and Trails, Phoenix, AZ, and Arizona State Museum, University of 
Arizona, Tucson, AZ

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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

SUMMARY: The Arizona State Parks and Trails and the Arizona State 
Museum, University of Arizona, in consultation with the appropriate 
Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, have determined that 
the cultural item listed in this notice meets the definition of 
unassociated funerary object. Lineal descendants or representatives of 
any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this 
notice that wish to claim this cultural item should submit a written 
request to the Arizona State Museum. If no additional claimants come 
forward, transfer of control of the cultural item 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 this cultural item should submit a 
written request with information in support of the request to the 
Arizona State Museum at the address in this notice by November 16, 
2018.

ADDRESSES: John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, P.O. Box 210026, 
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, 
telephone (520) 626-2950, 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 a cultural item under the 
control of Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 
that meets the definition of an unassociated funerary object 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 item. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.

History and Description of the Cultural Items

    On an unknown date during or prior to 1960, one cultural item was 
removed by an unknown individual from an unrecorded site, designated AZ 
CC:2:--Safford Vicinity, located in Graham County, AZ. This object was 
described as having been removed from an ``Indian burial ground south 
of Safford, Arizona.'' The item was acquired by the Yuma Territorial 
Prison on an unknown date. In 1960, collections of the Yuma Territorial 
Prison were transferred to Arizona State Parks and Trails (ASPT). In 
December 2000, ASPT transferred the collection to the Arizona State 
Museum (ASM). The one unassociated funerary object is a ceramic jar. 
The human remains associated with this object are either missing or 
were not collected. Based on ceramic analysis, this object likely dates 
to A.D. 1050-1450, and is associated with the Mogollon culture.
    Archeologists describe the earliest settlements in southern Arizona 
as belonging to the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural horizon. Recent 
archeological investigations have added support to the hypothesis that 
the Hohokam cultural tradition arose from the earlier horizon, based on 
continuities in settlement pattern, architectural technologies, 
irrigation technologies, subsistence patterns, and material culture. 
Archeologists have had difficulty dating the beginning of the Hohokam 
period because the appearance of its distinctive cultural traits, 
including ceramic technologies and mortuary patterns, was a gradual 
process spanning several hundred years. This observation adds further 
support to the hypothesis that the Hohokam tradition evolved in place 
from earlier Late Archaic traditions. Linguistic evidence furthermore 
suggests that the Hohokam tradition was multiethnic in nature. Cultural 
continuity between these prehistoric occupants of Southern Arizona and 
present-day O'odham peoples is supported by continuities in settlement 
pattern, architectural technologies, basketry, textiles, ceramic 
technology, and ritual practices.
    Archeologists have also recognized the presence of people 
associated with the Mogollon tradition in southeastern Arizona. It is 
thought that their presence represents a migration of people from the 
mountainous region to the north, where the Mogollon archeological 
culture was originally defined. Material culture characteristics of 
Mogollon 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, painted and unpainted corrugated 
ceramics, red and brown ceramics, inhumation burials, cradleboard 
cranial deformation, grooved stone axes, and bone artifacts. In 
southeastern Arizona, there is evidence for both Hohokam and Mogollon 
traditions, but it is unclear whether this represents separate 
occupations of different people who interacted and exchanged material 
culture, or cohabitation and a blending of identities.
    Oral traditions that are documented for the Ak-Chin Indian 
Community (previously listed as the Ak Chin Indian Community of the 
Maricopa (Ak Chin) Indian Reservation, Arizona); Gila River Indian 
Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona; Salt River 
Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona; 
and the Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona support cultural affiliation 
with Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period and Hohokam sites in 
southern Arizona.
    Oral traditions that are documented for the Hopi Tribe also support 
cultural affiliation with Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period and 
Hohokam sites in the region. Several Hopi clans and religious societies 
are derived from ancestors who migrated from the south, and likely 
identified with the Hohokam tradition. Oral traditions and 
archeological evidence also support affiliation of Hopi clans with the 
Mogollon archeological sites.
    Oral traditions of medicine societies and kiva groups of the Zuni 
Tribe recount migration from distant portions of the Southwest to 
present day Zuni, and support affiliation with Mogollon, Hohokam, and 
Late Archaic traditions. Historical linguistic analysis also suggests 
interaction between ancestral Zuni and Uto-Aztecan speakers during the 
late Hohokam period.

Determinations Made by the Arizona State Museum (ASM) and Arizona State 
Parks and Trails (ASPT)

    Officials of the ASM and ASPT have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the one cultural item 
described above is 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 is 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

[[Page 52530]]

between the unassociated funerary object and the Ak-Chin Indian 
Community (previously listed as the Ak Chin Indian Community of the 
Maricopa (Ak Chin) Indian Reservation, Arizona); Gila River Indian 
Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona; Hopi Tribe of 
Arizona; Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River 
Reservation, Arizona; Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona; and the Zuni 
Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico, hereafter referred to as 
``The Tribes.''

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 
this cultural item should submit a written request with information in 
support of the claim to John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, P.O. Box 
210026, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, 
telephone (520) 626-2950, email [email protected], by November 
16, 2018. After that date, if no additional requestors have come 
forward, transfer of control of the unassociated funerary object to The 
Tribes may proceed.
    The Arizona State Museum is responsible for notifying The Tribes 
that this notice has been published.

    Dated: September 14, 2018.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2018-22599 Filed 10-16-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4312-52-P