Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: The University of Tennessee, Department of Anthropology, Knoxville, TN, 21001 [2024-06276]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 59 (Tuesday, March 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Page 21001]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-06276]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037635; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: The University of 
Tennessee, Department of Anthropology, Knoxville, TN

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 University of Tennessee, Department of 
Anthropology (UTK), intends to repatriate certain cultural items that 
meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects and that have a 
cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian 
organizations in this notice. The cultural items were removed from 
Buchanan County, MO.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after April 25, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Dr. Ozlem Kilic, University of Tennessee, Office of the 
Provost, 527 Andy Holt Tower, Knoxville, TN 37996-0152, telephone (865) 
974-2454, email [email protected] and [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 UTK. 
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 
summary or related records held by the UTK.

Description

    Five lots of unassociated objects were removed from the Cloverdale 
Ossuary (23BN2) in Buchanan County, Missouri. Reginald Bullock (R. B.) 
Aker systematically excavated the site in the late 1950s; however, he 
did not completely excavate the ossuary during that time, returning in 
1959 to recover additional burials vandalized from previously 
unexcavated graves. Details of the transfer of the burials and cultural 
items are unknown; however, it is likely that the excavated site 
materials were sent to William Bass at the University of Kansas and 
subsequently brought with him when he began working in the UTK 
Department of Anthropology in 1971. The five lots of unassociated 
funerary objects are one lot of natural stone, one lot of worked stone, 
one lot of possible petrified wood, one lot of charred wood, and one 
lot of charred pignuts.

Cultural Affiliation

    The cultural items 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: geographical information, 
historical information, and Native American traditional knowledge.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, UTK has determined that:
     The five 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.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Pawnee Nation 
of Oklahoma.

Requests for Repatriation

    Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items 
in this notice must be sent to the Responsible Official identified in 
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 items in this notice to a requestor 
may occur on or after April 25, 2024. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, UTK must determine the most appropriate 
requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for joint repatriation of the 
cultural items are considered a single request and not competing 
requests. UTK 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) but in the older format. 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. 3004, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.9.

    Dated: March 15, 2024.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2024-06276 Filed 3-25-24; 8:45 am]
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