[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 80 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25423-25424]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08809]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035711; 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 Clay and Lowndes 
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

    One cultural item was removed from Clay County, MS. The Kellogg 
Village site (22CL527), located in the Divide Cut Section of the 
Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway, contained Middle Archaic, Woodland, and 
Mississippian components. The site was excavated by the Department of 
Anthropology, Mississippi State University under principal investigator 
James R. Atkinson and field director G. Gerald Berry, between June 29 
and September 16, 1978. The one unassociated funerary object is a 
square stone gorget.
    Forty-eight cultural items were removed from Lowndes County, MS. 
The Shell Bluff site (22LO530) is a shell midden and base camp with 
Late Woodland and Miller III components. Excavation of the site by the 
University of Southern Mississippi under principal investigators Drs. 
David Heisler and Robert Gilbert and field directors Thomas Padgett and 
Don Crusoe began in July and August of 1979 and resumed during mid-
October through late November 1979. The 48 lots of unassociated 
funerary objects consist of 11 lots of ceramics, five lots of lithics, 
six lots of shells, two lots of ground sandstone, six lots of faunal 
remains, four lots of miscellaneous fill, three lots of daub, three 
lots of sandstone fragments, four lots of soil samples, two lots of 
burial fill, one lot of firecracked rock, and one lot of fired clay.
    Eleven cultural items were removed from Lowndes County, MS. The 
Vaughn Mound site (22LO538) has Middle Archaic, Woodland, Miller III, 
and Miller IV components. The site was identified by Marc D. Rucker as 
part of a field survey, and it was excavated by the Mississippi State 
University's Department of Anthropology under Rucker's direction, with 
the assistance of James R. Atkinson and Michael D. Walls, over a ten-
week period during the summer of 1973. The 11 lots of unassociated 
funerary objects consist of five lots of faunal remains, four lots of 
shell, one lot of clay, and one lot of shell ornaments.
    One cultural item was removed from Lowndes County, MS. The Tibbee 
Creek site (22LO600) has components from the early Gulf Formational 
through the Mississippian, with the most concentrated occupation 
occurring during the late Woodland Miller III phase. The site was 
excavated by the Department of Anthropology, Mississippi State 
University under the direction of Crawford Blakeman, Principal 
Investigator, and John O'Hear, Project Director (and later Principal 
Investigator), beginning in November 1976. Excavation was completed in 
August of 1977. The one unassociated funerary object is one lot of 
ceramics.

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 61 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 and The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

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

[[Page 25424]]

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 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, 10.10, 
and 10.14.

    Dated: April 19, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-08809 Filed 4-25-23; 8:45 am]
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