[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 3, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 405-406]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-28918]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037163; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items Amendment: Animas 
Museum/La Plata County Historical Society, Durango, CO

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice; amendment.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Animas Museum/La Plata County Historical 
Society has amended a Notice of Intent to Repatriate published in the 
Federal Register on April 4, 2018. This notice amends the number of 
cultural items in a collection removed from San Juan County, NM.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after February 2, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Susan Jones, Museum, Collections Manager, Animas Museum/La 
Plata County Historical Society, 3065 W 2nd Avenue, Durango, CO 81301, 
telephone (970) 259-2402, 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 
Animas Museum. The National Park Service is not responsible for the 
determinations in this notice. Additional information on the amendments 
and determinations in this notice, including the results of 
consultation, can be found in the summary or related records held by 
the Animas Museum.

Amendment

    This notice amends the determinations published in a Notice of 
Intent to Repatriate in the Federal Register (83 FR 14497-14498, April 
4, 2018). Repatriation of the items in the original Notice of Intent to 
Repatriate has not occurred. During further analysis of the artifacts 
in the Museum's collection, documentation was found concerning one bowl 
excavated by George F. Stewart from 31 archeological sites within 
Dolores, La Plata, and Montezuma Counties in Colorado and San Juan and 
Rio Arriba Counties in New Mexico was found not to have been associated 
with a burial. This notice amends the number of unassociated funerary 
objects as listed in the original notice as follows:
    Between 1951 and 1971, 116 unassociated funerary objects 
(previously identified as 117 unassociated funerary objects) were 
removed from 31 archeological sites within Dolores, La Plata, and 
Montezuma Counties in Colorado and San Juan and Rio Arriba Counties in 
New Mexico. They were excavated by George F. Stewart, an amateur 
archeologist and private collector from La Plata County, CO, who 
donated most of his collection to the La Plata County Historical 
Society in 1978. These unassociated funerary objects are all from 
Ancestral Puebloan sites dating from the Basketmaker III (A.D. 500) to 
the Pueblo III (A.D. 1300) periods. The 116 unassociated funerary 
objects include 106 ceramic objects (53 bowls, 16 jars, 13 pitchers, 
seven seed jars, six ladles, five ollas, four pipes, and two dippers), 
two stone pendants, one stone pipe, one flake, one concretion, one 
sandstone bowl, one bone awl, one bone bead, and two unidentifiable 
objects.

Determinations (as Amended)

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the Animas Museum has determined that:
     The 118 cultural items 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 in this

[[Page 406]]

notice and the Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico; Pueblo 
of Acoma, New Mexico; Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico; Pueblo of Isleta, 
New Mexico; Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico; Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico; 
Pueblo of Nambe, New Mexico; Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico; Pueblo of 
Pojoaque, New Mexico; Pueblo of San Felipe, New Mexico; Pueblo of San 
Ildefonso, New Mexico; Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa 
Ana, New Mexico; Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico; Pueblo of Taos, New 
Mexico; Pueblo of Tesuque, New Mexico; Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico; Santo 
Domingo Pueblo; Ysleta del Sur Pueblo; and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico.

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 February 2, 2024. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the Animas 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. The Animas Museum is responsible for sending a 
copy of this notice to the Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations 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, 
10.13, and 10.14.

    Dated: December 20, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-28918 Filed 1-2-24; 8:45 am]
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