Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, DC, and Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 19940-19942 [2019-09309]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 88 (Tuesday, May 7, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19940-19942]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-09309]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0027724; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of 
the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, DC, and Arizona 
State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs 
(BIA) and the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona (ASM) in 
consultation with the appropriate Indian tribes or Native Hawaiian 
organizations, have determined that the cultural items listed in this 
notice meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects. Lineal 
descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian 
organization not identified in this notice that wish to claim these 
cultural items should submit a written request to the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs. If no additional claimants come forward, transfer of control 
of the cultural items to the lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, or 
Native Hawaiian organizations stated in this notice may proceed.

DATES: Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or 
Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
claim these cultural items should submit a written request with 
information in support of the claim to the Bureau of Indian Affairs at 
the address in this notice by June 6, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Anna Pardo, NAGPRA Coordinator, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
12220 Sunrise Valley Drive, Room 6084, Reston, VA 20191, telephone 
(703) 390-6343, email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is here given in accordance with the 
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 
U.S.C. 3005, of the intent to repatriate cultural items under the 
control of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian 
Affairs, Washington, DC, and in the physical custody of the Arizona 
State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, that meet the 
definition of unassociated funerary objects under 25 U.S.C. 3001.
    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 cultural items. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.

History and Description of the Cultural Items

    Between 1931 and 1944, 133 cultural items were removed from AZ 
V:4:1(ASM), also known as Kinishba Pueblo, in Gila County, AZ. Legally 
authorized excavations were conducted by Byron Cummings between 1931 
and 1939, under the auspices of ASM and the Department of Anthropology, 
University of Arizona. Cummings retired in 1937; however, he continued 
excavating and rebuilding rooms at Kinishba until 1944. After 1937, 
financial support for the project was provided by the Hohokam Museum 
Association, BIA, and Depression-era Emergency Conservation Work (EWC). 
Cummings acquired permits for the excavations from 1931 to 1939, but no 
records of permits exist for excavations after this date range. The 
items listed below were found with human remains, but the human remains 
are not present in ASM collections.
    Archeological collections from this site were accessioned by ASM in 
a number of different phases, having been brought to ASM at the end of 
each field season (1931 to 1939). On February 23, 2003, additional 
archeological materials from this site were found in ASM collections, 
and were assigned accession numbers. On February 5, 1969, a collection 
of archeological materials from AZ V:4:1(ASM) that had been housed at 
the Kinishba Museum and the Southwest Archaeological Center in Globe, 
AZ, was transferred to ASM and assigned an accession number. The 133 
unassociated funerary objects are one antler artifact, three bone awls, 
four bone hairpins, one bone needle, 39 ceramic bowls, 15 ceramic jars, 
one ceramic miniature vessel, one ceramic pitcher, 35 ceramic sherds, 
three ceramic vessels, one chipped stone

[[Page 19941]]

flake, one chipped stone knife, two lots of pigment, five fragments of 
plant fiber matting, two quartz crystals, one shell and stone necklace, 
one lot of shell beads, four shell necklaces, one stone necklace, one 
stone artifact, three lots of stone beads, three stone concretions, one 
stone disk, one stone pipe, one stone projectile point, and two 
turquoise pendants.
    AZ V:4:1(ASM) is a large, plaza-oriented pueblo containing more 
than 600 rooms arranged in eight masonry room groups (Groups I-VIII) on 
both sides of a drainage that bisects the site. The complex is set in a 
valley that is part of the White River drainage. Groups I and II are 
the largest rooms blocks, each consisting of rectangular arrangements 
of approximately 200 ground-story rooms with associated plazas. The 
plaza in Group I consisted of two sections, with a rectangular masonry 
kiva in the north section, and a bench along the walls of the southern 
section. The excavations revealed that Group I was a multiple story 
pueblo. The other room groups had multiple stories as well. Groups III-
VIII are made up of approximately six to sixteen rooms each. The main 
excavations occurred in Group I, the other room groups are less fully 
researched. Human remains were uncovered both inside and outside of the 
excavated roomblocks. The pueblo was occupied between around A.D. 1225 
and 1450, based on evidence from tree ring dates, architectural forms, 
building technology, and ceramic styles. These characteristics, the 
mortuary patterns, and other items of material culture recovered at 
this site are consistent with the archeologically described Upland 
Mogollon or prehistoric Western Pueblo tradition.
    A detailed discussion of the basis for cultural affiliation of 
archeological sites in the region where the above site is located may 
be found in ``Cultural Affiliation Assessment of White Mountain Apache 
Tribal Lands (Fort Apache Indian Reservation),'' by John R. Welch and 
T.J. Ferguson (2005). To summarize, archeologists have used the terms 
Upland Mogollon or prehistoric Western Pueblo to define the 
archeological complex represented by the Kinishba Pueblo. Material 
culture characteristics of these traditions include a temporal 
progression from earlier pit houses to later masonry pueblos, villages 
organized in room blocks of contiguous dwellings and associated with 
plazas, rectangular kivas, polished and paint-decorated ceramics, 
unpainted corrugated ceramics, inhumation burials, cradleboard cranial 
deformation, grooved stone axes, and bone artifacts. The combination of 
the material culture attributes and a subsistence pattern of hunting 
and gathering augmented by maize agriculture helps to identify an 
earlier group. Archeologists have also remarked that there are strong 
similarities between this earlier group and present-day tribes included 
in the Western Pueblo ethnographic group, especially the Hopi Tribe of 
Arizona and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico. The 
similarities in ceramic traditions, burial practices, architectural 
forms, and settlement patterns have led archeologists to believe that 
the prehistoric inhabitants of the Mogollon Rim region migrated north 
and west to the Hopi mesas, and north and east to the Zuni River 
Valley. Certain objects found in Upland Mogollon archeological sites 
strongly resemble ritual paraphernalia used by the Hopi and Zuni in 
continuing religious practices. Some petroglyphs on the Fort Apache 
Reservation have also persuaded archeologists of continuities between 
the earlier identified group and current-day Western Pueblo people. 
Biological information from AZ P:14:1(ASM), a site located close to AZ 
V:4:1(ASM), supports the view that the prehistoric occupants of the 
Upland Mogollon region had migrated from various locations to the north 
and west of the region.
    Hopi and Zuni oral traditions parallel the archeological evidence 
for migration. Migration figures prominently in Hopi oral tradition, 
which refers to the ancient sites, pottery, stone tools, petroglyphs, 
and other artifacts left behind by the ancestors as ``Hopi 
Footprints.'' This migration history is complex and detailed, and 
includes traditions relating specific clans to the Mogollon region. 
Hopi cultural advisors have also identified medicinal and culinary 
plants at archeological sites in the region. Their knowledge about 
these plants was passed down to them from the ancestors who inhabited 
these ancient sites. Migration is also an important attribute of Zuni 
oral tradition, and includes accounts of Zuni ancestors passing through 
the Upland Mogollon region. The ancient villages mark the routes of 
these migrations. Zuni cultural advisors remark that the ancient sites 
were not abandoned. People returned to these places from time to time, 
either to reoccupy them or for religious pilgrimages--a practice that 
has continued to the present day. Archeologists have found ceramic 
evidence at shrines in the Upland Mogollon region that confirms these 
reports. Zuni cultural advisors have names for plants endemic to the 
Mogollon region that do not grow on the Zuni Reservation. They also 
have knowledge about traditional medicinal and ceremonial uses for 
these resources, which has been passed down to them from their 
ancestors. Furthermore, Hopi and Zuni cultural advisors have recognized 
that their ancestors may have been co-resident at some of the sites in 
this region during their ancestral migrations.
    There are differing points of view regarding the possible presence 
of Apache people in the Upland Mogollon region during the time that AZ 
V:4:1(ASM) was occupied. Some Apache traditions describe interactions 
with Ancestral Pueblo people during this time, but according to these 
stories, Puebloan people and Apache people were regarded as having 
separate identities. The White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache 
Reservation, Arizona, does not claim cultural affiliation with the 
human remains and associated funerary objects from this site. As 
reported by Welch and Ferguson (2005), consultations between the Navajo 
Nation, Arizona, New Mexico & Utah; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; Pueblo 
of Laguna, New Mexico; and White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort 
Apache Reservation, Arizona, have indicated that none of these tribes 
wish to pursue claims of affiliation with sites on White Mountain 
Apache Tribal lands. Moreover, the White Mountain Apache Tribe of the 
Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona, supports the repatriation of human 
remains and associated funerary objects from this site, and is ready to 
assist the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico, in their reburial.

Determinations Made by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of 
Indian Affairs and Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona

    Officials of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian 
Affairs and Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona have determined 
that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 133 cultural items 
described above 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.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(2), there is a relationship of 
shared group

[[Page 19942]]

identity that can be reasonably traced between the unassociated 
funerary objects and the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and the Zuni Tribe of 
the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to claim 
these cultural items should submit a written request with information 
in support of the claim to Anna Pardo, NAGPRA Coordinator, Bureau of 
Indian Affairs, 12220 Sunrise Valley Drive, Room 6084, Reston, VA 
20191, telephone (703) 390-6343, email [email protected], by June 6, 
2019. After that date, if no additional claimants have come forward, 
transfer of control of the unassociated funerary objects to the Hopi 
Tribe of Arizona and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico 
may proceed.
    The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs is 
responsible for notifying the Hopi Tribe of Arizona; White Mountain 
Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona; and the Zuni 
Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico that this notice has been 
published.

    Dated: April 16, 2019.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2019-09309 Filed 5-6-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P