[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 19 (Monday, January 30, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5914-5915]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-01840]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035188; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Field Museum of Natural History, 
Chicago, IL

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 Field Museum of Natural History has 
completed an inventory of human remains and has determined that there 
is no cultural affiliation between the human remains and any Indian 
Tribe. The human remains were removed from unknown location(s).

DATES: Disposition of the human remains in this notice may occur on or 
after March 1, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Helen Robbins, Repatriation Director, Field Museum of 
Natural History, 1400 S Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605-2496, 
telephone (312) 665-7317, 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 
Field Museum. 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 inventory or related records held by the Field 
Museum.

Description

    Human remains representing, at minimum, four individuals were 
removed from unknown location(s). According to Museum records, these 
human remains consisting of four crania were part of a group of 
eighteen unaccessioned individuals that had been stored in a box 
labeled ``Sun Dance, Arapaho.'' The Museum contends, based on 
institutional history

[[Page 5915]]

and collections practices, that the box was likely used previously for 
a collection of Sun Dance materials, which did not include human 
remains, without being re-labeled. Some time prior to 1985, catalog 
cards were prepared for the eighteen individuals, identifying them as 
``Arapaho?''. During a 1985-87 inventory, 12 of the 18 individuals were 
identified as Basketmaker from San Juan County, Utah, and as coming to 
the Museum as part of the Lang Collection from the University of 
Chicago's Walker Museum. The other six individuals could not be 
identified. The Museum determined these human remains to be culturally 
unidentifiable due to a lack of information. The Northern Arapaho 
Tribe's position is that the Museum's records were, at some point, 
sufficient for the Museum to conclude that the requested human remains 
were possibly Arapaho, and that there is no extant contrary evidence 
sufficient to overturn this initial conclusion. The fact that there is 
no present evidence could simply be the result, in the Tribe's view, 
that the evidence establishing these remains as Arapaho previously 
simply didn't survive. Accordingly, the Northern Arapaho Tribe has 
requested repatriation of four of these individuals. No associated 
funerary objects are present.

Aboriginal Land

    The human remains in this notice were removed from unknown 
geographic location(s). The evidence from the Field Museum's records 
indicates that the human remains may have come from either accession 
694 (Arapaho materials from Wind River Reservation, Wyoming), accession 
777 (Sun Dance, Arapaho materials from the Cheyenne-Arapaho 
Reservation, Oklahoma), or accession 1468 (Basketmaker material from 
San Juan County, Utah).

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes, the Field Museum has 
determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of four individuals of Native American ancestry.
     No relationship of shared group identity can be reasonably 
traced between the human remains and any Indian Tribe.
     The human remains described in this notice may have been 
removed from the aboriginal land of Big Pine Band Paiute Tribe of the 
Owens Valley; Burns Paiute Tribe; Chemehuevi Indian Tribe of the 
Chemehuevi Reservation, California; Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, 
Oklahoma; Colorado River Indian Tribes of the Colorado River Indian 
Reservation, Arizona and California; Confederated Tribes of the Goshute 
Reservation, Nevada and Utah; Fort Independence Indian Community of 
Paiute Indians of the Fort Independence Reservation, California; Fort 
McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian 
Reservation, Nevada and Oregon; Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Kaibab Band of 
Paiute Indians of the Kaibab Indian Reservation, Arizona; Las Vegas 
Tribe of Paiute Indians of the Las Vegas Indian Colony, Nevada; 
Lovelock Paiute Tribe of the Lovelock Indian Colony, Nevada; Moapa Band 
of Paiute Indians of the Moapa River Indian Reservation, Nevada; 
Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming; Ohkay 
Owingeh, New Mexico; Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah (Cedar Band of 
Paiutes, Kanosh Band of Paiutes, Koosharem Band of Paiutes, Indian 
Peaks Band of Paiutes, and Shivwits Band of Paiutes); Pueblo of Acoma, 
New Mexico; Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico; Pueblo of Isleta, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico; Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico; 
Pueblo of Nambe, New Mexico; Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico; Pueblo of 
Pojoaque, New Mexico; Pueblo of San Felipe, New Mexico; Pueblo of San 
Ildefonso, New Mexico; Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa 
Ana, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico; Pueblo of Taos, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Tesuque, New Mexico; Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico; 
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of the Pyramid Lake Reservation, Nevada; San 
Juan Southern Paiute Tribe of Arizona; Santo Domingo Pueblo; Shoshone-
Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation; Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of 
the Duck Valley Reservation, Nevada; Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the 
Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado; Summit Lake Paiute Tribe of Nevada; 
Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah; Ute Mountain 
Ute Tribe; Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe of the Benton Paiute 
Reservation, California; Walker River Paiute Tribe of the Walker River 
Reservation, Nevada; Yerington Paiute Tribe of the Yerington Colony & 
Campbell Ranch, Nevada; Ysleta del Sur Pueblo; and the Zuni Tribe of 
the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico.

Requests for Disposition

    Written requests for disposition of the human remains in this 
notice must be sent to the Responsible Official identified in 
ADDRESSES. Requests for disposition may be submitted by:
    1. Any one or more of the Indian Tribes identified in this notice.
    2. 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, or who shows that the requestor is an aboriginal land 
Indian Tribe.
    Disposition of the human remains described in this notice to a 
requestor may occur on or after March 1, 2023. If competing requests 
for disposition are received, the Field Museum must determine the most 
appropriate requestor prior to disposition. Requests for joint 
disposition of the human remains are considered a single request and 
not competing requests. The Field Museum 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 10.9 and Sec.  
10.11.

    Dated: January 18, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-01840 Filed 1-27-23; 8:45 am]
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