Notice of Inventory Completion: Alaska State Office, Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage, AK; Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository, Kodiak, AK; and University of Wisconsin Anthropology Department, Madison, WI, 47226-47227 [E8-18713]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 157 (Wednesday, August 13, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47226-47227]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-18713]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: Alaska State Office, Bureau of 
Land Management, Anchorage, AK; Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological 
Repository, Kodiak, AK; and University of Wisconsin Anthropology 
Department, Madison, WI

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the 
completion of an inventory of human remains in the control of the 
Alaska State Office, Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage, AK, and in 
the possession of the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository, 
Kodiak, AK, and University of Wisconsin Anthropology Department, 
Madison, WI. The human remains were removed from the Crag Point 
archeological site (49-KOD-00044) and Anton Larsen archeological site 
(49-KOD-00040) on Kodiak Island, AK.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003 (d)(3). 
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the Native 
American human remains. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Alaska 
State Office, Bureau of Land Management; Alutiiq Museum and 
Archaeological Repository; University of Wisconsin Anthropology 
Department; and Smithsonian Institution professional staff in 
consultation with representatives of the Koniag, Inc., Native Village 
of Ouzinkie, and Ouzinkie Native Corporation.
    In 1968, excavations occurred at the Crag Point archeological site 
(49-KOD-00044) on Kodiak Island, AK, by researchers from Bryn Mawr 
College working in partnership with the Kodiak Area Native Association. 
Faunal samples from the project were shipped directly from the field to 
the Department of Anthropology's zooarchaeology laboratory at Hunter 
College for analysis, where they remained unstudied. In 2000, Robert 
Kopperl, a graduate student of the University of Washington, Department 
of Anthropology, gained permission to move the faunal samples to 
Seattle, WA, to study a portion of the material as part of his doctoral 
research. During analyses, the human remains were identified. They 
consist of 41 individual human bones that together make up 20 skeletal 
elements representing the partial remains of at least 3 individuals. In 
2002, 21 of the 41 individual bones were sent to the Alutiiq Museum and 
Archaeological Repository by Robert Kopperl for assistance with 
repatriation. In July of 2006, 19 of the 41 individual bones were hand-
carried from Seattle to the Alutiiq Museum by a visiting researcher. In 
September 2007, with permission from the Bureau of Land Management, one 
additional bone was hand-carried from Seattle to the Alutiiq Museum. No 
known individuals were identified. No associated funerary objects are 
present.
    At an unknown date in the 1970s, human remains representing a 
minimum of one individual were removed from Crag Point archeological 
site (49-KOD-00044) on Kodiak Island, AK, by the now-deceased William 
Laughlin. The human remains were transported to the University of 
Wisconsin Anthropology Department at an unknown date and under unknown 
circumstances. In 2006, the human remains were found among William 
Laughlin's collections at the University of Wisconsin Anthropology 
Department where they are presently located. No

[[Page 47227]]

known individual was identified. No associated funerary objects are 
present.
    At an unknown date in the 1970s, human remains representing a 
minimum of two individuals were removed from Crag Point archeological 
site (49-KOD-00044) on Kodiak Island, AK, by the now-deceased William 
Laughlin. The human remains were transported to the University of 
Wisconsin Anthropology Department at an unknown date and under unknown 
circumstances. In 2006, the human remains were found among William 
Laughlin's collections at the University of Wisconsin Anthropology 
Department. In 2007, the human remains were sent to the Smithsonian 
Institution where they are presently located. No known individuals were 
identified. No associated funerary objects are present.
    At an unknown date in the 1960s or 1970s, human remains 
representing a minimum of one individual were removed from Anton Larsen 
archeological site (49-KOD-00040) on Kodiak Island, AK, by the now-
deceased William Laughlin. The human remains were transported to the 
University of Wisconsin Anthropology Department at an unknown date and 
under unknown circumstances. In 2006, the human remains were found 
among William Laughlin's collections at the University of Wisconsin 
Anthropology Department. In 2007, the human remains were sent to the 
Smithsonian Institution for inventory, where they are presently 
located. No known individual was identified. No associated funerary 
objects are present.
    The Crag Point and Anton Larsen sites are located on Federal lands 
administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The Crag Point site is a 
prehistoric archeological deposit with strata spanning the period from 
about 7,000 to 800 years ago. The human remains at the Alutiiq Museum 
that were found in the faunal samples come from dense deposits of well-
preserved shell midden in the site's upper layers (L1 and L2). These 
deposits surround a cluster of collapsed sod houses and are known to 
include both formal burials and scattered deposits of human remains. 
These well-preserved deposits date primarily to the Late Kachemak 
tradition (circa 2,700 B.P. to 800 B.P.) as evidenced by typological 
studies of artifacts and features, as well as multiple radiometric 
dates. The human remains were not found in a specific feature or area 
within the midden, but represent scattered elements from a variety of 
excavation squares. They may be from burials disturbed by the 
construction of site features, as the site was occupied repeatedly 
during the Late Kachemak tradition and is known to have contained both 
individual pit burials and crypt burials in the midden; or they may be 
the remains of individuals who were not formally buried. Previous 
studies of human remains from Crag Point illustrate that the remains of 
some individuals were butchered and mixed with midden deposits. 
Archeologists believe that the people of the Late Kachemak tradition 
are ancestors of modern day Alutiiqs. Archeological data collected over 
the past 20 years indicates that Late Kachemak societies evolved into 
the more complexly organized societies of the Koniag tradition observed 
at historic contact in the late 18th century. As such, the human 
remains from the Crag Point site are presumed to be Native American and 
most closely affiliated with the contemporary Native residents of the 
Kodiak archipelago, the Kodiak Alutiiq. Specifically, they were 
recovered from an area of the Kodiak Archipelago traditionally used by 
members of the Native Village of Ouzinkie.
    The human remains found at the Crag Point archeological site by 
William Laughlin in the 1970s presently located at the University of 
Wisconsin Anthropology Department and at the Smithsonian Institution 
are similarly presumed to date no more recently than 800 B.P., though 
no specific information is available about them.
    The Anton Larsen site is a prehistoric archeological deposit near 
the Crag Point site. The human remains found at this site by William 
Laughlin in the 1960s or 1970s and presently at the Smithsonian 
Institution are similarly presumed to date no more recently than 800 
B.P., though no specific information is available about them.
    Officials of the Alaska State Office, Bureau of Land Management 
have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human 
remains described above represent the physical remains of at least 
seven individuals of Native American ancestry. Officials of the Alaska 
State Office, Bureau of Land Management have also determined that, 
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), there is a relationship of shared group 
identity that can be reasonably traced between the Native American 
human remains and the Native Village of Ouzinkie.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Dr. 
Robert E. King, Alaska State NAGPRA Coordinator, Bureau of Land 
Management, 222 W. 7th Avenue, Box 13, Anchorage, AK 99513-7599, 
telephone (907) 271-5510, before September 12, 2008. Repatriation of 
the human remains to the Native Village of Ouzinkie may proceed after 
that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The Alaska State Office, Bureau of Land Management is responsible 
for notifying the Koniag, Inc., Native Village of Ouzinkie, and 
Ouzinkie Native Corporation that this notice has been published.

    Dated: July 8, 2008
Daniel Odess,
Assistant Associate Director, Park Cultural Resources.
[FR Doc. E8-18713 Filed 8-12-08; 8:45 am]
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