[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 232 (Monday, December 5, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74443-74444]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-26373]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0034953; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Beloit College, 
Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit, WI

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Beloit College, Logan Museum of 
Anthropology (LMA) intends to repatriate certain cultural items that 
meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects and that have a 
cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian 
organizations in this notice. The cultural items were removed from the 
Moundville archeological site (1TU500), in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after January 4, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Nicolette B. Meister, Beloit College, Logan Museum of 
Anthropology, 700 College Street, Beloit, WI 53511, telephone (608) 
363-2305, email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is published as part of the 
National Park Service's administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA. 
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
LMA. The National Park Service is not responsible for the 
determinations in this notice. Additional information on the 
determinations in this notice, including the results of consultation, 
can be found in the summary or related records held by the LMA.

Description

    In 1905 or 1906, two funerary objects were removed from a burial at 
the Moundville archeological site by Clarence Bloomfield Moore. The LMA 
has no knowledge concerning the whereabouts of the human remains in the 
burial. On an unknown date, the LMA acquired these items from Moore. 
The unassociated funerary objects are one reconstructed and shell 
tempered Bell Plain ceramic bowl (16097) and a partially reconstructed 
and incomplete shell tempered Lamar Incised possible duck effigy bowl 
(16099). The Bell Plain bowl was recovered from the ground north of 
Mound C and was identified as Vessel No. 4 by Moore. The Lamar Incised 
bowl was recovered from the ground south of Mound D and were identified 
as Vessel No. 25 by Moore.

Cultural Affiliation

    The cultural items in this notice are connected to one or more 
identifiable earlier groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures. There is a 
relationship of shared group identity between the identifiable earlier 
groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures and one or more Indian Tribes or 
Native Hawaiian organizations. The following types of information were 
used to reasonably trace the relationship: linguistic, oral 
traditional, geographical, kinship, biological, archeological, 
historical, and anthropological. In addition, the Native American 
Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee has found, by a 
preponderance of the evidence, that a cultural affiliation exists 
between human remains and funerary objects originating from, and 
adjacent to, the Moundville archeological site (1TU500) and the 
present-day Muskogean-speaking Indian Tribes. This finding was 
published in the Federal Register on February 1, 2022.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the LMA has determined that:
     The two cultural items objects 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 a specific burial site of a Native American 
individual.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and Muskogean-speaking 
Indian Tribes that include the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas 
(previously listed as Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas); Coushatta 
Tribe of Louisiana; Jena Band of Choctaw Indians; Seminole Tribe of 
Florida (previously listed as Seminole Tribe of Florida (Dania, Big 
Cypress,

[[Page 74444]]

Brighton, Hollywood, & Tampa Reservations)); The Chickasaw Nation; The 
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; The Muscogee (Creek) Nation; and The 
Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.

Requests for Repatriation

    Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items 
in this notice must be sent to the Responsible Official identified in 
ADDRESSES. Requests for repatriation may be submitted by any lineal 
descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization not 
identified in this notice who shows, by a preponderance of the 
evidence, that the requestor is a lineal descendant or a culturally 
affiliated Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
    Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice to a requestor 
may occur on or after January 4, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the LMA must determine the most appropriate 
requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for joint repatriation of the 
cultural items are considered a single request and not competing 
requests. The LMA is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to 
the Indian Tribes identified in this notice.
    Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.8, Sec.  
10.10, and Sec.  10.14.

    Dated: November 23, 2022.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2022-26373 Filed 12-2-22; 8:45 am]
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