[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 240 (Thursday, December 15, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76641-76642]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-27182]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035008; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

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 Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology (PMAE), Harvard University 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

[[Page 76642]]

organizations in this notice. The cultural items were removed from Hale 
and Tuscaloosa Counties, Alabama.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after January 17, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Patricia Capone, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, 
telephone (617) 496-3702, 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 
PMAE. The National Park Service is not responsible for the 
determinations in this notice. Additional information on the amendments 
and determinations in this notice, including the results of 
consultation, can be found in the inventory or related records held by 
the PMAE.

Description

    The eight cultural items were removed from the Moundville 
archeological site in Hale and Tuscaloosa Counties, AL. The eight 
unassociated funerary objects are two discoidal stones, one bird-head 
effigy, three stone effigy pipes, one incised palette, and one lot of 
shell beads. The PMAE does not have a record of human remains from 
Moundville being at PMAE.
    On an unknown date, Professor N.T. Lupton collected a discoidal 
stone from a pot in a mound in Carthage, AL. The PMAE does not have a 
record of the associated pot being at PMAE. The Moundville 
archeological site was referred to as ``the Carthage group'' through 
the second half of the nineteenth century. This funerary object was 
donated by Professor N.T. Lupton to the PMAE in October 1877.
    On an unknown date in or around 1860, O.T. Prince collected one 
bird-head effigy from near Moundville, AL. On an unknown date in or 
around 1860, a possibly enslaved worker of O.T. Prince or O.T. Prince 
collected three stone effigy pipes, found while digging a ditch near 
Mound M of the Moundville site, AL. On an unknown date, the family of 
O.T. Prince collected one engraved stone disc (``The Willoughby Disc'') 
from the base of a small mound near Moundville, Carthage, AL. On an 
unknown date, the family of O.T. Prince collected one discoidal stone 
and one lot of shell beads from near Moundville, Carthage, AL. O.T. 
Prince was the landowner of a portion of the Moundville-site property 
from 1857-1862. Given this, it is likely that these localities refer 
specifically to the mounds or fields between mounds on the Prince 
estate at the Moundville site. On an unknown date, these seven 
unassociated funerary objects were acquired by F.E. Hyde and Charles P. 
Bowditch and donated by Mr. Hyde and Mr. Bowditch to the PMAE on an 
unknown date in 1896.

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: anthropological information, 
archeological information, biological information, geographical 
information, historical information, kinship, linguistics, oral 
tradition, and other relevant information and/or expert opinion.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the PMAE has determined that:
     The eight 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 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 the present-day 
Muskogean speaking Tribes: Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas (previously 
listed as Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas); Alabama-Quassarte Tribal 
Town; Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana; Jena Band of Choctaw Indians; 
Seminole Tribe of Florida (previously listed as Seminole Tribe of 
Florida (Dania, Big Cypress, Brighton, Hollywood, & Tampa 
Reservations)); The Chickasaw Nation; The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; 
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation; The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma; and the 
Thlopthlocco Tribal Town.

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 17, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the PMAE 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 PMAE is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to 
the Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations 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, 10.10, 
and 10.14.

    Dated: December 7, 2022.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2022-27182 Filed 12-14-22; 8:45 am]
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