[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 213 (Monday, November 8, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61780-61782]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-24312]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0032947; 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 human remains and associated funerary objects in 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and has determined that 
there is no cultural affiliation between the human remains and 
associated funerary objects and any present-day Indian Tribe. 
Representatives of any Indian Tribe 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 TVA. 
If no additional requestors come forward, transfer of control of the 
human remains and associated funerary objects to the Indian Tribes 
stated in this notice may proceed.

DATES: Representatives of any Indian Tribe 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 TVA at the address in this 
notice by December 8, 2021.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 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.

[[Page 61781]]

3003, of the completion of an inventory of human remains and associated 
funerary objects under the control of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 
Knoxville, TN. The human remains and associated funerary objects were 
removed from site 40TR27, in Trousdale County, TN.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003(d)(3) and 
43 CFR 10.9(e). 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. The National Park Service 
is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects was made by TVA's professional staff. On September 25, 2019, 
the TVA invited the following Indian Tribes to consult on the 
disposition of the human remains and associated funerary objects: The 
Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma; Alabama-Coushatta Tribe 
of Texas [previously listed as Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas]; 
Cherokee Nation; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; Eastern Shawnee 
Tribe of Oklahoma; Kialegee Tribal Town; Shawnee Tribe; The Muscogee 
(Creek) Nation; Thlopthlocco Tribal Town; and the United Keetoowah Band 
of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma. On October 29, 2019, the TVA conducted 
a telephonic consultation with representatives of the Cherokee Nation; 
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; and The Muscogee (Creek) Nation. 
Hereafter, all the Indian Tribes listed in this section are referred to 
as ``The Consulted and Notified Tribes.''
    As a result of consultation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians 
and The Muscogee (Creek) Nation jointly requested transfer of control 
of the human remains and associated funerary objects. No objections to 
this joint transfer of control were received from The Consulted and 
Notified Tribes.

History and Description of the Remains

    Between 1980 and 1982, human remains representing, at minimum, 74 
individuals were removed from the Duncan Tract site, 40TR27, in 
Trousdale County, TN. This site was first recorded by Robert Jolley in 
January 1980, as part of a TVA survey of potential soil borrow areas 
near the construction site of TVA's Hartsville Nuclear Plant. Under 
contract with the TVA, the Anthropological Research Center of Memphis 
State University (now Memphis University) mitigated the adverse effects 
of the planned soil borrow pit on this site.
    Excavations took place primarily from August to December of 1980, 
with follow-up excavations in 1981 and 1982. The archeological methods 
employed included hand excavation and mechanical stripping of the plow 
zone, and excavation of features penetrating the subsoil. Seven 
circular structures were identified from post mold patterns and 130 
pits were excavated. In their summary report of the excavations 
submitted to the TVA in 1983, Charles McNutt and Guy Weaver believed 
the primary occupations at the Duncan Tract site date to the Early and 
Middle Woodland, but radiocarbon dates and projectile points suggest 
the existence of an earlier, Archaic period occupation.
    Sometime after 1982, Memphis University transferred the artifacts 
excavated from the Duncan Tract site to the Tennessee Division of 
Archaeology (TDOA) in Nashville, TN. According to TDOA, the TVA 
transferred the collection to the Department of Anthropology at the 
University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) sometime between 1991 and 
1997. None of the original excavation forms, maps, or notes have been 
found at Memphis University, TDOA, or UTK. The lack of original 
excavation documents has complicated the identification of associated 
and unassociated funerary objects that were intentionally placed with 
human remains. While it is possible that some objects were part of the 
midden soil through which the burial unit was excavated, due to the 
lack of definitive evidence, the TVA has decided to offer for 
disposition those items excavated at site 40TR27 from the features that 
held human remains.
    Although most of the human remains are fragmentary, both males and 
females are present. They range in age from newborn to over 50 years 
old. No known individuals were identified. The 4,689 associated 
funerary objects found in burial features include two abraders, one 
piece of aster, six biface or biface fragments, 832 animal bones or 
bone fragments, eight radiocarbon samples, 10 pieces of charcoal, two 
pieces of chert, three cores, 1,459 pieces of debitage, one drill, one 
end scraper, 24 fire-cracked rocks, six flake tools, 536 unidentified 
flora fragments, four fossils, one piece of groundstone, 758 carbonized 
hickory nuts, one chert knife, 52 pieces of limestone, one stone 
pestle, one pot sherd, 10 projectile points or knives, one quartzite 
nodule, 536 pieces of rock, 55 rocks or debitage, three pieces of 
sandstone, two scrapers, one piece of shale, 75 shells, 43 shell and 
bone fragments, 143 soil samples, one animal tooth, two unifacial 
tools, two utilized flakes, 63 walnut fragments, 41 walnut and hickory 
fragments, and two worked animal bones.
    Site 40TR27 lies outside the boundary of any area recognized by a 
final judgment of the Indian Claims Commission or the United States 
Court of Claims, or a ratified treaty as the aboriginal land of an 
Indian Tribe. On March 14, 1775, Richard Henderson, representing the 
Transylvania Company, met with the Cherokee to negotiate the purchase 
of land including Trousdale County, TN, for the creation of a 14th 
colony. The Treaty of Sycamore Shoals was not acknowledged by the 
United States government or the governments of the states of Virginia 
and North Carolina. Therefore, the land from which these human remains 
and associated funerary objects were removed is not the ``tribal land'' 
of an Indian Tribe or a Native Hawaiian organization, or the 
``aboriginal land'' of an Indian Tribe pursuant to 43 CFR 10.11.
    Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3006(c)(5) and 43 CFR 10.10(g)(2)(ii) and 
10.16, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review 
Committee (Review Committee) may make a recommendation to the Secretary 
of the Interior (Secretary) for specific actions for disposition of any 
human remains and associated funerary objects not already addressed in 
43 CFR 10.11. In April 2021, the Tennessee Valley Authority requested 
that the Review Committee consider a proposal to transfer control of 
the human remains and associated funerary objects in this notice 
jointly to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and The Muscogee 
(Creek) Nation. The Review Committee carefully considered the request 
at its July 7, 2021 meeting and recommended to the Secretary that the 
proposed transfer of control proceed. An October 19, 2021 letter 
transmitted the Secretary's independent review and concurrence with the 
Review Committee that:
     Tennessee Valley Authority consulted with every 
appropriate Indian Tribe,
     None of The Consulted and Notified Tribes objected to the 
proposed transfer of control to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians 
and The Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and
     Tennessee Valley Authority may proceed with the agreed 
upon transfer of control of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects jointly to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and The 
Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

[[Page 61782]]

    Transfer of control is contingent on the publication of a Notice of 
Inventory Completion in the Federal Register. This notice fulfills that 
requirement.

Determinations Made by the Tennessee Valley Authority

    Officials of the Tennessee Valley Authority have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), the human remains described 
in this notice are Native American based on their presence in 
prehistoric archeological contexts and an osteological analysis.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3003(e), the human remains described 
in this notice represent the physical remains of 74 individuals of 
Native American ancestry.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 4,689 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), a relationship of shared 
group identity cannot be reasonably traced between the Native American 
human remains and any present-day Indian Tribe.
     Pursuant to 43 CFR 10.11, the land from which these human 
remains and associated funerary objects were removed is not the 
``tribal land'' of any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization, or 
the ``aboriginal land of any Indian Tribe.
     Pursuant to 43 CFR 10.10(g)(2)(ii) and 10.16, the 
disposition of the human remains will be to the Eastern Band of 
Cherokee Indians and The Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
     The Tennessee Valley Authority has agreed to transfer 
control of the associated funerary objects to the Eastern Band of 
Cherokee Indians and The Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Representatives of any Indian Tribe 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 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 
December 8, 2021. After that date, if no additional requestors have 
come forward, transfer of control of the human remains and associated 
funerary objects to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and The 
Muscogee (Creek) Nation may proceed.
    The Tennessee Valley Authority is responsible for notifying The 
Consulted and Notified Tribes that this notice has been published.

    Dated: October 29, 2021.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2021-24312 Filed 11-5-21; 8:45 am]
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