[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 80 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25425-25426]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08808]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035710; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers, Mobile District, Mobile, AL

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 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile 
District, 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 Lowndes and Monroe 
Counties, MS.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after May 26, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Ms. Alexandria Smith, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile 
District, 109 St. Joseph Street, P.O. Box 2288, Mobile, AL 36628-0001, 
telephone (251) 690-2728, 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 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District. 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 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District.

Description

    Thirty cultural items were removed from Lowndes County, MS. The 
Cofferdam Site (22LO599) is an Early through Late Woodland occupation 
site featuring some Miller II components. Cofferdam was identified by 
Army Corps of Engineers personnel during the excavation of the 
cofferdam for the Columbus Lock and Dam of the Tennessee-Tombigbee 
Waterway, and it was excavated by the Mississippi State University 
Department of Anthropology under the direction of James R. Atkinson and 
field crew chief G. Gerald Berry from mid-August to the first week of 
October 1975. The 30 lots of unassociated funerary objects are consist 
of four lots of lithics, one lot of noncultural rock, two lots of 
pebbles, two lots ceramics, three lots of shells, seven lots of faunal 
remains, one lot of flotation samples, one lot of sandstone, three lots 
of clay, one lot of daub, two lots of firecracked rock, two lots of 
groundstone, and one lot of nuts.
    Nine cultural items were removed from Lowndes County, MS. The River 
Cut site (22LO860) is a small village site containing Woodland and 
Mississippian components as well as Miller III components with some 
signs of possible Miller II habitation. The site was reported to the 
USACE, Mobile District, in 1983, and following the salvage removal of a 
burial from an eroding bank in 1984, the site was excavated by the Cobb 
Institute of Archaeology, Mississippi State University, under principal 
investigator Janet Rafferty, with Mary Evelyn Starr, between December 
29 and 30, 1985 and from July 23 through September 29, 1986. The nine 
lots of unassociated funerary objects consist of four lots of ceramics, 
one lot of lithics, one lot of faunal remains, one lot of shells, one 
lot of charcoal, and one lot of soil samples.
    Three cultural items were removed from Monroe County, MS. One of 
several sites identified during early mitigation measures for the 
prospective Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway, the SW Amory site (22MO710) 
was excavated between December 1978 and May 1979 under the direction of 
Judith A. Bense. No further work was ever conducted. The three lots of 
unassociated funerary objects consist of one lot of faunal remains, one 
lot of lithics, and one lot of soil samples.

[[Page 25426]]

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, 
historical, other information, and expert opinion.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District has 
determined that:
     The 42 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 Chickasaw 
Nation.

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 May 26, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile 
District 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 U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers, Mobile District 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: April 19, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-08808 Filed 4-25-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P