[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 53 (Monday, March 22, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15253-15255]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-05886]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0031603; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Fort Lewis 
College, Durango, CO

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Fort Lewis College, in consultation with the appropriate 
Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, has determined that the 
cultural items listed in this notice meet the definition of 
unassociated funerary objects. Lineal descendants or representatives of 
any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this 
notice who wish to claim these cultural items should submit a written 
request to Fort Lewis College, via the NAGPRA Liaison. If no additional 
claimants come forward, transfer of control of the cultural items 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 who wish to 
claim these cultural items should submit a written request with 
information in support of the claim to Fort Lewis College, via the 
NAGPRA Liaison at the address in this notice by April 21, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Kathleen Fine-Dare, Ph.D., NAGPRA Liaison, Fort Lewis 
College, 1000 Rim Drive, Durango, CO 81301, telephone (970) 247-7438, 
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 cultural items under the 
control of Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO, that meet the definition of 
unassociated funerary objects 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 items. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.

History and Description of the Cultural Items

    All 248 items in this notice were taken from Ancestral Puebloan 
burials located in La Plata County, CO (164 items), Montezuma County, 
CO (83 items), and Dolores County, CO (one item), and they belong to 
either the Homer Root Ledger Collection (89 items) or the Charles 
McClain Collection (159 items). (The Root and McClain collections also 
contain items from New Mexico and Arizona, but this notice only 
concerns objects located in the three Colorado counties.) Both 
collections are currently stored in the Fort Lewis College Center of 
Southwest Studies curation facility.
    The Homer Root Ledger Collection is comprised of items donated to 
or acquired by the Fort Lewis College Museum. Homer Emerson Root (1896-
1977) was a Michigan-born and Colorado-raised Methodist minister who 
was appointed Curator of the Fort Lewis College Museum after retiring 
from the ministry in 1953. From 1958-1968, he kept five detailed and 
elaborately detailed ledger books in which museum (and other) items 
were skillfully rendered in ink and oil color. These items were 
accompanied by catalog cards. A self-trained archeologist and artist, 
Root directed FLC archeological field schools in the 1960s. Root had 
strong connections with avocational archeologists in the region who 
often donated objects they had acquired to the College Museum.
    The items in the Charles McLain Collection were collected prior to 
1970. They were accessioned in 2001 and 2008, following two donations 
from McClain's daughters, Katherine McLain Bergfield and Margaret 
``Peggy'' Fearing. The donations were accompanied by McLain's personal, 
handwritten catalog cards, which usually included documentation on the 
funerary context of the vessels and vague locational information. Many 
of the items in the McLain collection were amassed through Charles 
McClain's extensive collecting activities. Two of the items identified 
as unassociated funerary objects were acquired through a trade with 
ceramicist Norman ``Ted'' Oppelt.

Homer Root Ledger Collection From La Plata County, CO (63 items)

    In 1960, one item was removed from a burial during the construction 
of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, located at 2611 Junction Street, 
Durango, CO. The one item is a jar.
    Around 1961, five items were removed from burials at multiple 
archeological sites on Ewing Mesa by

[[Page 15254]]

W.D. Ewing and Homer Root. The five items are three bowls and two jars.
    Around 1962, one item was removed (likely by Zeke Flora) from a 
burial at a site known as Ignacio 12:10, located just south of Animas 
City Mountain, Durango, CO. The one item is a bowl.
    Around 1962, one item was removed by Zeke Flora from the burial of 
a juvenile individual at a site recorded as Ignacio 12:23, whose exact 
location is unknown today. The one item is a bowl.
    Around 1964, two items were removed by J.C. Miller from an 
unidentified site near Indian Creek, located 10 miles south of Durango 
and west of the Animas River. The items were found lying near the 
cranium of an extended adult individual interred in a refuse midden. 
The two items are one jar and one ceramic pipe.
    Around 1964, one item was removed by J.C. Miller from an Ancestral 
Puebloan burial at an unidentified site located on a ridge west of 
Marvel. The one item is an olla.
    Sometime during 1964-65, 13 items were removed by J.C. Miller from 
burials at multiple archeological sites in the Blue Mesa area, located 
five miles south of Durango, CO. Some items were recorded originally as 
having been associated with additional items that were catalogued but 
have not yet been located. Others were associated with each other in 
extended burial sites that were covered by cobblestones and then by 
domestic refuse. The 13 items are six bowls, three jars, one ladle, one 
hammerstone, one knife, and one pitcher.
    In the summer of 1966, 27 cultural items were removed from burials 
at the Sacred Ridge site (5MT9399), southwest of Durango, CO, by Homer 
Root while directing a Fort Lewis College archeological field school. 
The site lay in Ridges Basin, a ranch owned by Mike Bodo where, for 
many years, the public could search for fossils, stones, and ``Indian 
relics.'' Those activities had resulted in the destruction of 
archeological graves, structures, and trash mounds. After 1966, the 
site was subject to multiple archeological testing activities. Today, 
it lies beneath Lake Nighthorse as a result of the Animas-La Plata 
project. The 27 items are one metate, 11 bowls, eight jars, six 
pitchers, and one effigy vessel.
    In 1967, 12 items were removed from burials at the Pasture Ruin 
sites (5LP177, 5LP179, and 5LP243) by Homer Root while directing a Fort 
Lewis College archeological field school conducting salvage work at the 
Bodo Ranch prior to plowing by landowner Mike Bodo. The 12 items are 
three bowls, four pitchers, three jars, one ``implement'' made of non-
human bone, and one sandstone burial slab.

Charles McClain Collection From La Plata County, CO (101 items)

    Sometime before 1970, 65 items were collected from 17 burials 
located on Blue Mesa. The 65 items are 21 jars, 28 bowls, 14 pitchers, 
and two effigy vessels.
    Sometime before 1970, 31 items were collected from burials on the 
private property of C.A. Brown Wild Horse (Florida) Mesa, located in 
Durango, CO. The 31 items are seven pitchers, 12 bowls, eight jars, one 
seed jar, one effigy vessel, one lid, and one pipe.
    Sometime before 1970, four items were disinterred from adult 
burials located in the Marvel area of western La Plata County. The four 
items are two pipes and two bowls.
    Sometime before 1970, one item was disinterred from a burial at the 
Bodo Point site. The one item is a bowl.

Homer Root Collection From Montezuma County, CO (25 items)

    Around September of 1936, three items were removed from adult 
burials at the Yellow Jacket complex (5MT5) by Homer Root. The three 
items are one mortuary slab and two bowls.
    At an unknown date (but recorded in 1961 and 1964), 17 items were 
removed by Homer Root from adult burials at an unidentified site within 
the Herren Farm Complex, located on Stanley Ranch. The 17 items are 10 
stones (including hematite, copper ore, and agate), two shaped 
sandstones, one river cobble ground stone, three bowls, and one jar.
    At an unknown date (but recorded in 1964), four items were removed 
from adult burials at an unidentified site located on Stanley Ranch. 
The four items are two bowls, one jar, and one stone slab of river 
cobble.
    Around 1964, one item was removed by a rancher while plowing his 
field in the Goodman Point area. (Although the rancher found a second 
mug at the same time, the location of that mug is unknown.) The one 
item is a mug.

Charles McClain Collection from Montezuma County, CO (58 items)

    Sometime before 1970, 53 items were removed from burials on the 
property of Warren Griffith, located at the head of Yellow Jacket 
Canyon. The 53 items are 23 bowls, nine ladles, one canteen, four mugs, 
10 jars, four kiva jars, one effigy vessel, and one pitcher.
    Sometime before 1970, five items were removed from adult burials at 
the Herren Farms Site Complex (5MT2516). The site was situated on the 
property of Ed Herren, located at the head of Ruin Canyon, near Ackmen. 
The five items are two mugs, one bowl, one jar, and one canteen.

Homer Root Collection From Dolores County, CO (1 item)

    In 1937, one item was removed by National Youth Administration 
workers from an Ancestral Puebloan adult burial located southeast of 
the Sago School site. The item was given to the Durango Public Library 
by Lola Sanders and was later donated to Fort Lewis College by Helen 
Sloan Daniels. The one item is a mug.
    The cultural affiliation of the unassociated funerary objects was 
determined through the following lines of evidence: geographical, 
biological (drawings were made of human remains found with the objects, 
but the whereabouts of the remains are unknown), kinship, 
archeological, folklore, oral tradition, historical, and expert 
opinion. This decision was informed by information gathered from 
multiple rounds of face-to-face and written tribal consultations that 
took place in 2018, 2019, and 2020; artifact analysis; provenance 
research; and a thorough review of archeological, ethnographic, and 
oral historical literature. Ancestral Puebloan ceramic typologies 
helped to identify technological traditions, as well as chronological 
and geographical attributes of ceramic manufacture.

Determinations Made by Fort Lewis College

    Officials of the Fort Lewis College, have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 248 cultural items 
described above 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 and are believed, by a preponderance of the 
evidence, to have been removed from specific burial sites of Native 
American individuals.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(2), there is a relationship of 
shared group identity that can be reasonably traced between the 
unassociated funerary objects and the Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice who wish to claim 
these cultural items should submit a written request with information 
in support of the claim to Kathleen S. Fine-Dare, Ph.D., Tribal 
Liaison, Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim

[[Page 15255]]

Drive, Durango, CO 81301, telephone (970) 247-7438, email 
[email protected], by April 21, 2021. After that date, if no 
additional claimants have come forward, transfer of control of the 
unassociated funerary objects to the Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico may 
proceed.
    Fort Lewis College, via the NAGPRA Liaison, is responsible for 
notifying the Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico that this notice has been 
published.

    Dated: March 4, 2021.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2021-05886 Filed 3-19-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P