[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 144 (Friday, July 28, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Page 48908]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-16064]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0036252; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: High Desert 
Museum, Bend, OR

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 High Desert Museum 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 the area of the Columbia and upper Snake 
Rivers.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after August 28, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Michelle Seiler, High Desert Museum, 59800 South Hwy 97, 
Bend, OR 97702, telephone (541) 382-4754 Ext. 376, 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 High 
Desert 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 High Desert 
Museum.

Description

    Fifty cultural items were removed from the area of the Columbia and 
upper Snake Rivers. In July of 1966, Charles and Edith McGill purchased 
these cultural items from Bill Reierson, owner of Kurio Kabin in 
Cashmere, WA. At the time of purchase, the store identified these items 
as being from the Columbia and Snake River areas. Kurio Kabin, a rock 
shop, was located in an area in Washington with an active group that 
regularly looted sites and graves in the area of the Columbia and upper 
Snake Rivers. Charles and Edith McGill donated these items to the High 
Desert Museum on August 13, 1992. The 50 unassociated funerary objects 
are 34 shell beads; seven Olivella shells; eight pieces of Dentalium; 
and one string of hemp on which are one piece of copper, 14 small white 
beads, and one black bead.

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: geographical and historical.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the High Desert Museum has determined that:
     The 50 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 Confederated 
Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation; Confederated Tribes of the 
Colville Reservation; Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian 
Reservation; Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of 
Oregon; and the Nez Perce Tribe.

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 August 28, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, High Desert 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. High Desert Museum 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: July 19, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-16064 Filed 7-27-23; 8:45 am]
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