[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 94 (Wednesday, May 15, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21804-21805]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-09993]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0027785; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Robert S. Peabody Institute of 
Archaeology, Andover, MA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Robert S. Peabody Institute 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 Institute 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 Institute of 
Archaeology at the address in this notice by June 14, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Ryan Wheeler, Robert S. Peabody Institute 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 
Institute of Archaeology, Andover MA. The human remains and associated 
funerary objects were removed from the Chequesset Inn-Taylor Hill site 
(19BN106), Wellfleet, Barnstable County, MA.
    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 human remains and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Consultation

    An invitation to consult was extended to the Mashpee Wampanoag 
Tribe (previously listed as the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal 
Council, Inc.)

[[Page 21805]]

and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), hereafter referred to 
as ``The Invited Tribes.'' The Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, a 
non-federally recognized Indian group, was also invited, but chose not 
to participate.
    The Invited Tribes either did not consult or engaged in limited 
communication. Determinations of cultural affiliation are based on 
prior and extensive consultation with these Indian Tribes and groups 
for other human remains and associated funerary objects from the same 
site and vicinity.

History and Description of the Remains

    At an unknown date early in the twentieth century, human remains 
representing, at minimum, one individual were removed from the 
Chequesset Inn-Taylor Hill site (19-BN-106) in Barnstable County, MA. 
Research by archeologist James W. Bradley (2008) indicates that 
avocational archeologist Howard Torrey removed human remains from the 
Chequesset Inn-Taylor Hill site, and gave some of these human remains 
to avocational archeologist Fred Luce in 1915. During an inventory 
project in 2018, staff members of the Robert S. Peabody Institute of 
Archaeology located 6 boxes of objects from Cape Cod area sites that 
had been amassed by Fred Luce in the early twentieth century. 
Examination by physical anthropologist Harley Erickson found that the 
human remains consist of two heavily eroded human bone fragments--a 
distal end of a metatarsal and a medial hand phalanx. Both are from an 
adult of indeterminate sex and age. No known individuals were 
identified. The 56 associated funerary objects are six modified animal 
bone fragments; 22 ceramic fragments, some decorated (including small 
bag of ceramic dust and debris); and 28 small, unmodified shells. 
(Three other individuals and eight associated funerary objects from 
Taylor Hill and excavated by Howard Torrey and archeologist Ripley R. 
Bullen in 1946 and 1949 were listed by the Robert S. Peabody Institute 
of Archaeology in a Notice of Inventory Completion published in 2005, 
and have already been repatriated.)
    The Chequesset Inn-Taylor Hill site is reported in archeologist 
James W. Bradley's 2008 article ``Taylor Hill: A Middle Woodland 
Mortuary Site in Wellfleet, MA,'' in the Bulletin of the Massachusetts 
Archaeological Society. The site dates to the late Middle Woodland era 
(circa 1100 to 1300 years B.P.), and is described by Bradley as a 
``concentration of late Middle Woodland habitation and mortuary sites 
located at the head of Wellfleet Harbor on Cape Cod.'' These sites lie 
within the historically documented territory of the Wampanoag. In his 
1928 monograph, ``Territorial Subdivisions and Boundaries of the 
Wampanoag, Massachusett, and Nauset Indians,'' (Indian Notes and 
Monographs No. 44, 1928) Frank Speck places the area around Wellfleet 
within the traditional territory of the Wampanoag. Linguistically, this 
area is within the so-called n-dialect shared by Massachusett, 
Wampanoag, and Pokanoket speakers (see map and discussion in Kathleen 
J. Bragdon's 2009 book Native Peoples of Southern New England, 1650-
1775, pages 22-23). Sociopolitical and economic patterns in the coastal 
area of Rhode Island and Massachusetts were established by the late 
Woodland period circa A.D. 1000, and the coastal groups in this area 
are likely the ancestors of the Wampanoag people encountered by the 
English in the seventeenth century. Archeology, ethno-history, 
linguistics, and oral history provide multiple lines of evidence that 
demonstrate longstanding ties between the Wampanoag and the area around 
the Chequesset Inn-Taylor Hill site and affirm affiliation with the 
burial at the site.

Determinations Made by the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology

    Officials of the Robert S. Peabody Institute 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 one individual of 
Native American ancestry.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 56 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 Invited 
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 
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 Ryan Wheeler, Robert S. Peabody Institute of 
Archaeology, Phillips Academy, 180 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810, 
telephone (978) 749-4490, email [email protected], by June 14, 2019. 
After that date, if no additional requestors have come forward, 
transfer of control of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects to The Invited Tribes may proceed.
    The Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology is responsible for 
notifying The Invited Tribes and the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag 
Nation, a non-federally recognized Indian group, that this notice has 
been published.

    Dated: April 25, 2019.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2019-09993 Filed 5-14-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4312-52-P