[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 136 (Tuesday, July 18, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45916-45917]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-15103]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0036186; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of 
the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Dungeness National Wildlife 
Refuge, Sequim, WA

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. Department of the Interior, Fish 
and Wildlife Service, Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge (Dungeness 
NWR) intends to repatriate a certain cultural item that meets the 
definition of an unassociated funerary object and that has a cultural 
affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in 
this notice. The cultural item was removed from Clallam County, WA.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural item in this notice may occur on or 
after August 17, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Jennifer Brown-Scott, Project Leader, Washington Maritime 
National Wildlife Refuge Complex, 715 Holgerson Road, Sequim, WA 98382, 
telephone (360) 457-8451, 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 
Dungeness NWR. 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 Dungeness NWR.

Description

    The one cultural item was removed from Clallam County, WA. The 
cultural item, a dugout canoe, is under control of the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service and is currently in the custody of the Jamestown 
S'Klallam Tribe. This unassociated funerary object was removed from 
Dungeness Spit on Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge in June of 1980. 
In 1984, the canoe was loaned to the Museum and Arts Center in Sequim 
to be displayed outdoors, under a protective shelter. In 1993, the 
Museum and Arts Center notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that 
it was terminating the loan agreement. On September 3, 1993, the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service contacted the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and 
offered to loan the canoe and the protective shelter to the Tribe, and 
on September 10, 1993, the Tribe accepted the offer and took custody of 
the canoe. The one unassociated funerary item is a dugout canoe.

Cultural Affiliation

    The cultural item in this notice is 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, 
archeological, geographical, and historical.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, Dungeness NWR has determined that:
     The one cultural item described above is 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

[[Page 45917]]

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 item and the Jamestown 
S'Klallam Tribe.

Requests for Repatriation

    Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural item 
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 item in this notice to a requestor may 
occur on or after August 17, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, Dungeness NWR 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. Dungeness NWR 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: July 6, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-15103 Filed 7-17-23; 8:45 am]
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