[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 36 (Thursday, February 22, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13362-13363]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03573]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037406; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior, 
Fish and Wildlife Service, Klamath Falls, 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 U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish 
and Wildlife Service (USFWS) 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 Siskiyou County, CA.

DATES: Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects in this notice may occur on or after March 25, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Spencer Lodge, USFWS, 1936 California Avenue, Klamath Falls, 
OR 97601, telephone (541) 885-8481, 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 
USFWS. 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 inventory or related records held by the USFWS.

Description

    Human remains representing, at minimum, 46 individuals, along with 
associated funerary objects, were removed from Siskiyou County, CA by 
R. J. Squier and Gordon L. Grosscup during archeological excavations 
occurring between 1952-1954. Excavations took place at two national 
wildlife refuges (NWR) operated by the USFWS, Tule Lake and Lower 
Klamath NWR, where human remains and associated funerary objects were 
removed from four sites (CA-Sis-2, CA-Sis-108, CA-Sis-223, CA-Sis-239). 
These objects have been curated at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum at the 
University of California Berkeley since exhumation.
    There are 373 associated funerary objects within this collection. 
They include: 268 Olivella beads, 16 flakes, 13 bangles, 11 crystals, 
10 scrapers, 10 bird bone tubes, five lots of ochre/pigment (red, 
yellow, white), four awls, four pipe and pipe fragments, four 
projectile points, four lots of shell fragments, three bone tools, 
three animal bone beads, two haliotis ornaments, two bone whistles, two 
obsidian blades, two choppers, two bone pendants, two bone pins, two 
pebbles (agate, quartz), one lot of ashes and charcoal from pipe, one 
projectile point fragment, one unworked Olivella shell, and one worked 
bone fragment. Nine beads and four lots of shell fragments are 
currently missing from the collection, and the Museum continues to 
looks for them.

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. Here 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 information and geographical information.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the USFWS has determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of 46 individuals of Native American ancestry.
     The 373 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 Klamath Tribes and the Modoc 
Nation.

[[Page 13363]]

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.
    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 March 25, 2024. If 
competing requests for repatriation are received, the USFWS 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. The USFWS is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to 
the Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations identified in this 
notice.
    This notice was submitted after the effective date of the revised 
regulations (88 FR 86452, December 13, 2023, effective January 12, 
2024). As the notice conforms to the mandatory format of the Federal 
Register and includes the required information, the National Park 
Service is publishing this notice as submitted.
    Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.10.

    Dated: February 9, 2024.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2024-03573 Filed 2-21-24; 8:45 am]
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