[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 162 (Thursday, August 20, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51480-51481]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-18234]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0030729; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Tennessee Valley Authority, 
Knoxville, TN

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has completed an 
inventory of associated funerary objects, in consultation with the 
appropriate Indian Tribes, and has determined that a cultural 
affiliation between the associated funerary objects and present-day 
Indian Tribes can reasonably be traced. Lineal descendants or 
representatives of any Indian Tribe not identified in this notice that 
wish to request transfer of control of the associated funerary objects 
should submit a written request to the TVA. If no additional requestors 
come forward, transfer of control of the associated funerary objects to 
the Indian Tribes stated in this notice may proceed.

DATES: Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe not 
identified in this notice that wish to request transfer of control of 
the associated funerary objects should submit a written request with 
information in support of the request to the TVA at the address in this 
notice by September 21, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Dr. Thomas O. Maher, Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 West 
Summit Hill Drive, WT11C, Knoxville, TN 37902-1401, telephone (865) 
632-7458, 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 associated funerary 
objects under the control of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, 
TN. The associated funerary objects were removed from an archeological 
site in Marshall County, AL.
    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 associated funerary objects. The National Park Service is not 
responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the associated funerary objects was made 
by TVA professional staff in consultation with representatives of the 
Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma; Alabama-Coushatta Tribe 
of Texas (previously listed as Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas); 
Cherokee Nation; Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana; Eastern Band of Cherokee 
Indians; Poarch Band of Creeks (previously listed as Poarch Band of 
Creek Indians of Alabama); The Chickasaw Nation; The Choctaw Nation of 
Oklahoma; The Muscogee (Creek) Nation; The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma; 
and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma 
(hereafter referred to as ``The Consulted Tribes'').

History and Description of the Associated Funerary Objects

    The site listed in this notice, archeological site 1MS32, was 
excavated as part of TVA's Guntersville Reservoir project by the 
Alabama Museum of Natural History (AMNH) at the University of Alabama, 
using labor and funds provided by the Works Progress Administration. 
Details regarding these excavations may be found in ``An Archaeological 
Survey of Guntersville Basin on the Tennessee River in Northern 
Alabama,'' by William S. Webb and Charles G. Wilder. Human remains and 
associated funerary objects from site 1MS32 were listed in a Notice of 
Inventory Completion in 2019 (84, FR, 18082-18084, April 29, 2019). All 
the cultural items listed in that notice have been transferred to the 
Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas (previously listed as Alabama-
Coushatta Tribes of Texas); Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town; Cherokee 
Nation; Coushatta

[[Page 51481]]

Tribe of Louisiana; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; The Muscogee 
(Creek) Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in 
Oklahoma. Recently, additional associated funerary objects were 
discovered during a review of TVA's archeological collection at the 
AMNH.
    On July 21, 1937, excavation of burial 44 took place at the McKee 
Island site, 1MS32, in Marshall County, AL, following TVA's acquisition 
of the site on November 12, 1936. The two associated funerary objects 
listed in this notice are copper collars.
    Site 1MS32 was a midden-rich village extending 800 feet along a 
ridge of the now-inundated McKee Island. While there are no radiocarbon 
dates from this site, Jon Marcoux's study of glass beads from 1MS32 
indicates a historic occupation in the range of A.D. 1650-1750. 
Similarly, analysis of brass bells recovered from this site suggests an 
occupation range from the late 1600s through the 1700s. During this 
period, multiple tribes were using the Guntersville Reservoir area. 
Chronicles from Spanish explorers of the 16th century and French 
explorers of the 17th and 18th century indicate the presence of 
chiefdom-level tribal entities in the southeastern United States that 
resemble the historic Native American chiefdoms. Linguistic analysis of 
place names noted by multiple Spanish explorers indicates that Koasati-
speaking Muskogean groups inhabited northeastern Alabama. Early maps 
and research into the historic Native American occupation of 
northeastern Alabama indicate that in the 17th and 18th centuries, the 
Koasati (as they were called by the English) or the Kaskinampo (as they 
were called by the French) were found at multiple sites in Jackson and 
Marshall Counties. Oral history, traditions, and expert opinions of the 
descendants of the Koasati/Kaskinampo and Muscogee (Creek) indicate 
that this portion of the Tennessee River valley was the homelands of 
their Tribes. Oral traditional information also indicates that by the 
middle 1700s, the Koasati/Kaskinampo were leaving the Tennessee River 
valley and moving south.
    Both British and American historians indicate that some Cherokee 
were leaving their traditional Tribal lands in the Appalachian 
Mountains and the Little Tennessee River watershed in the 1700s. In the 
1770s, a group of Cherokee, often designated the Chickamauga in 
historical documents, had relocated to areas northeast of present-day 
Chattanooga, Tennessee. Reprisals by American militia for Cherokee 
support of the British during the American Revolution forced these 
Cherokee further down the Tennessee River; by 1785-1790, there were 
named Cherokee villages in the Guntersville Reservoir area. At the same 
time, the Koasati, Muscogee (Creek), and Cherokee all hunted in the 
Tennessee Valley. Consequently, a relationship of shared group identity 
can reasonably be traced between the above earlier groups and their 
present-day descendant tribes, which include the Alabama-Coushatta 
Tribe of Texas (previously listed as Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of 
Texas); Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town; Cherokee Nation; Coushatta Tribe 
of Louisiana; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; The Muscogee (Creek) 
Nation; and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma.

Determinations Made by the Tennessee Valley Authority

    Officials of the Tennessee Valley Authority have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the two 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. 3003(d)(2)(C), while the Native 
American associated funerary objects are not clearly identifiable as 
being culturally identifiable to a single Indian Tribe, the Tennessee 
Valley Authority has determined by a reasonable belief that, given the 
totality of circumstances, these objects are culturally affiliated with 
the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas (previously listed as Alabama-
Coushatta Tribes of Texas); Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town; Cherokee 
Nation; Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; 
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation; and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee 
Indians in Oklahoma (hereafter referred to as ``The Tribes'').

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe not 
identified in this notice that wish to request transfer of control of 
the associated funerary objects should submit a written request with 
information in support of the request to Dr. Thomas O. Maher, Tennessee 
Valley Authority, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT11C, Knoxville, TN 
37902-1401, telephone (865) 632-7458, email [email protected], by 
September 21, 2020. After that date, if no additional requestors have 
come forward, transfer of control of the associated funerary objects to 
The Tribes may proceed.
    The Tennessee Valley Authority is responsible for notifying The 
Consulted Tribes that this notice has been published.

    Dated: August 3, 2020.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2020-18234 Filed 8-19-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P