[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 47 (Friday, March 10, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15071-15072]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-04901]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035451; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Museum of Fine 
Arts, Boston, 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 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) 
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 a site between Matamoras and 
Dingman's Ferry in Pike County, Pennsylvania.

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

ADDRESSES: Julia McCarthy, Interim Director of Collections, Museum of 
Fine Arts Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, telephone 
(617) 369-3499, 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 
MFA. 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 MFA.

Description

    The 11 cultural items were removed in 1962 from the property of 
Marie Zimmermann, located between Matamoras and Dingman's Ferry, in 
Pike County, Pennsylvania. The site was excavated by Lenape Chapter 12 
of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology. During these excavations, 
22 Native American graves were uncovered. The objects listed in this 
notice were kept by an amateur archeologist working at the site. His 
widow sold them to a New Jersey dealer who, in turn, sold them to the 
MFA in 1993.
    The 11 unassociated funerary objects are seven earthenware vessels 
(MFA accession nos. 1993.611-1993.616 and 1993.621), two earthenware 
pipes (1993.617-1993.618), one stone bowl (1993.619), and one stone 
plumb bob (1993.620). They have been dated to about A.D. 1340 based on 
their appearance.

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: archeological, geographical, 
and historical.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the MFA has determined that:
     The 11 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

[[Page 15072]]

the Delaware Nation, Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of Indians; and the 
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin.

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 MFA 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 MFA 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: March 1, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-04901 Filed 3-9-23; 8:45 am]
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