[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 51 (Tuesday, March 18, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12552-12553]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-04356]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0039465; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Intended Repatriation: Nelson Gallery Foundation (d/b/a
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), Kansas City, MO
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 Nelson Gallery Foundation, in
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian
organizations, intends to repatriate a certain cultural item that meets
the definition of an object of cultural patrimony and that has a
cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian
organizations in this notice.
DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on
or after April 17, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Reagan Duplisea, Registrar for Collections, The Nelson-
Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, MO 64111, telephone
(816) 751-1332, email atkins.org">rduplisea@nelson-atkins.org.
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
Nelson Gallery Foundation, and additional information on the
determinations in this notice, including the results of consultation,
can be found in the summary or related records. The National Park
Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.
Abstract of Information Available
One item has been requested for repatriation. The 2003.11 claim
qualifies
[[Page 12553]]
as an object of cultural patrimony. It is a human head effigy jar. On
June 12, 2003, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art purchased the cultural
item from Dr. James F. Cherry, Fayetteville, AR. The object was
accessioned into the Nelson-Atkin's collection on May 19, 2003.
A formal repatriation request was made by Carrie V. Wilson, Quapaw
Nation NAGPRA Director, on December 3, 2024. The human head effigy jar
is a tan-colored ceramic jar, modeled in the form of a human head, with
incised designs on face and red-painted hair. It is estimated to have
been made between A.D. 1450-1650. The jar is an object of cultural
patrimony. It appears to represent a venerated ancestor or person of
great political or social significance. The eyes are visibly open, and
speech glyphs of incised curving lines extending from the mouth are
believed to symbolize the act of speech.
The specific function of head effigy jars is unknown, as was the
nature of their contents. Many were used in some fashion, however,
perhaps ritually; these pots show unmistakable evidence of use and
wear, especially at the base and around the projecting ears and rims.
Significantly, this clearly indicates that the vessels were not made
exclusively for inclusion in burials. They were rare during the period
in which they were produced, and this rarity has extended to the
present. Only 138, including broken and fragmentary vessels, are known
to have survived among the thousands of extant Mississippian pots. Of
these, whole pots are extremely rare.
This jar was found in 1985 by Arnold Moore of Kennett, Missouri, at
the Chickasawba site, Mississippi County, Arkansas. The Chickasawba
site was a large village covering at least 20 acres, occupied in
various locations over a long period, and located around one large
temple mound. The site, numbered 3MS5, is located on private property.
The pot was legally excavated and was not associated with a burial. It
was located at a depth of approximately 4 \1/2\ feet in a ``sand blow''
8 to 10 feet wide within the village site and northwest of the mound.
(Geologists generally agree that these sand blow formations occurred
during the great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12.)
Dr. James Cherry, generally regarded as one of the foremost experts
of Mississippian head effigy jars, began his extensive study in 1981.
He purchased this jar from Mr. Moore in 1996.
Ms. Wilson from the Quapaw Nation consulted with the Museum onsite
in early December 2024 with Curator of Native American Art, Tahnee
Ahtone.
Determinations
The Nelson Gallery Foundation has determined that:
The one object of cultural patrimony described in this
notice has ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance
central to the Native American group, including any constituent sub-
group (such as a band, clan, lineage, ceremonial society, or other
subdivision), according to the Native American traditional knowledge of
an Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
There is a reasonable connection between the cultural item
described in this notice and the Quapaw Nation.
Requests for Repatriation
Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural item
in this notice must be sent to the authorized representative identified
in this notice under 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 April 17, 2025. If competing requests for
repatriation are received, the Nelson Gallery Foundation must determine
the most appropriate requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for
joint repatriation of the cultural item are considered a single request
and not competing requests. The Nelson Gallery Foundation is
responsible for sending a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribes and
Native Hawaiian organizations identified in this notice and to any
other consulting parties.
Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act,
25 U.S.C. 3004 and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.9.
Dated: February 4, 2025.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2025-04356 Filed 3-17-25; 8:45 am]
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