[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 47 (Friday, March 10, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15075-15076]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-04893]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035440; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Hudson Museum, 
University of Maine, Orono, ME

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and

[[Page 15076]]

Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Hudson Museum intends to repatriate 
certain cultural items that meet the definition of objects of cultural 
patrimony and that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes 
or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The cultural items 
were removed from Cattaraugus County, NY.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after April 10, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Amber Sky Heller, Registrar, Hudson Museum, University of 
Maine, 5746 Collins Center for the Arts, Orono, ME 04469, telephone 
(207) 581-1902, 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 
Hudson 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 summary or related records held by the Hudson 
Museum.

Description

    The three cultural items were removed from Cattaraugus County, NY. 
Sometime in the 1960s, three masks were removed from a long house on 
the Allegheny Reservation prior to the building's inundation by the 
Kinzua Dam. In 1969, the three masks were purchased by the University 
of Maine from Sheldon M. Tucker, M.D., of Houston, TX. Dr. Richard 
Emerick, founding Director, coordinated the purchase of the masks for 
the University's Anthropology Museum, which became the Hudson Museum in 
1986. The three objects of cultural patrimony are a Wolf Clan Mask 
(HM4838), a Consolation Mask (HM4839), and a New Year's Ceremonial Mask 
(HM4840).
    In March of 2020, the Hudson Museum began consultation with Dr. Joe 
Stahlman, Director of the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum and Tribal 
Historic Preservation Officer for the Seneca Nation of Indians. 
Subsequently, the Hudson Museum determined that the masks are 
culturally affiliated with the Coldspring Longhouse of the Seneca 
Nation of Indians.

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, 
geographical, historical, and other relevant information.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the Hudson Museum has determined that:
     The three cultural items described above have ongoing 
historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the Native 
American group or culture itself, rather than property owned by an 
individual.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Seneca Nation 
of Indians.

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 April 10, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the Hudson Museum 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 Hudson Museum is responsible for sending a 
copy of this notice to the Indian Tribe 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: March 1, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-04893 Filed 3-9-23; 8:45 am]
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