[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 5 (Monday, January 8, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 958-959]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-00130]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037201; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Portland State University, 
Portland, 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), Portland State University (PSU) has 
completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects 
and has determined that there is a cultural affiliation between the 
human remains and associated funerary objects and Indian Tribes or 
Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The human remains and 
associated funerary objects were removed from Tillamook County, OR.

DATES: Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects in this notice may occur on or after February 7, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Reno Nims, Portland State University, Research & Graduate 
Studies, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207, telephone (503) 725-6611, 
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 PSU. 
The National Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in 
this notice. Additional information on the

[[Page 959]]

determinations in this notice, including the results of consultation, 
can be found in the inventory or related records held by PSU.

Description

    Human remains representing, at minimum, five individuals were 
removed from an unknown location in Tillamook County, OR, at an unknown 
date. PSU faculty members encountered these human remains in the 
Anthropology Department's archeology holdings at an unknown date 
between 2003 and 2011. The 21 associated funerary objects are 15 pieces 
of worked stone, three burnt faunal remains, one bivalve shell, and two 
ceramic plate fragments.
    Human remains representing, at minimum, one individual were removed 
from the site of Chishucks Village in Tillamook County, OR, in 1971 by 
Ron Kent, a PSU master's student in the Anthropology Department. These 
human remains were inadvertently excavated from deposits of faunal 
remains, and subsequently identified as human in 2021 and 2022 by PSU 
staff members during a thorough search for Native American human 
remains and cultural items in the Anthropology Department's archeology 
holdings. The one associated funerary object is a clay pipe fragment.

Cultural Affiliation

    The human remains and associated funerary objects 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: anthropological information, archeological information, 
geographical information, and historical information.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, PSU has determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of six individuals of Native American ancestry.
     The 22 objects described in this notice 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.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the human remains and associated funerary 
objects described in this notice and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz 
Indians of Oregon; Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of 
Oregon; and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of 
Oregon.

Requests for Repatriation

    Written requests for repatriation of the human remains and 
associated funerary objects in this notice must be sent to the 
Responsible Official identified in ADDRESSES. Requests for repatriation 
may be submitted by:
    1. Any one or more of the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian 
organizations identified in this notice, and, if joined to a request 
from one or more of the Indian Tribes, Chinook Indian Nation, a non-
federally recognized Indian group.
    2. 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 human remains and associated funerary objects 
in this notice to a requestor may occur on or after February 7, 2024. 
If competing requests for repatriation are received, PSU must determine 
the most appropriate requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for 
joint repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary objects 
are considered a single request and not competing requests. PSU 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 10.9, 10.10, 
and 10.14.

    Dated: December 28, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2024-00130 Filed 1-5-24; 8:45 am]
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