[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 15, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14045-14047]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-5859]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[2253-665]


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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    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 in 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 cultural 
items. The National Park Service is not responsible for the 
determinations in this notice.
    In 1929, cultural items were removed from Canyon Creek Ruin, AZ 
C:2:8(GP)/AZ V:2:1(ASM), within the boundaries of the Fort Apache 
Indian Reservation, Gila County, AZ, during legally authorized 
excavations conducted by the Gila Pueblo Foundation, under the 
direction of Emil Haury. The items were found in association with human 
burials, but the human remains were not removed from these graves. In 
1950, the Gila Pueblo Foundation closed and the collections were 
transferred to the Arizona State Museum. The 185 unassociated funerary 
objects are 5 basketry mat fragments, 1 bone awl, 1 bone awl fragment, 
3 lots of botanical material, 30 ceramic bowls, 5 ceramic bowl 
fragments, 11 ceramic jars, 1 ceramic jar fragment, 1 ceramic ladle, 1 
ceramic pitcher, 77 pieces of flaked stone, 2 pieces of hematite 
mineral, 1 quartz crystal, 2 shell beads, 1 shell

[[Page 14046]]

disk, 3 shell pendants, 1 stone artifact, 8 stone beads, 23 stone 
projectile points, 1 stone shaft smoother, 1 textile fragment, 2 
turquoise beads, 2 turquoise pendants, 1 turquoise tessera, and 1 
unidentified object.
    Canyon Creek Ruin is a cliff dwelling site of approximately 140 
rooms. Based on the ceramic and perishable artifact assemblage, the 
site is dated to A.D. 1300 to 1400. The ceramic and architectural forms 
are consistent with the archeologically described Upland Mogollon or 
prehistoric Western Pueblo traditions.
    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 complexes represented by the site listed above.
    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 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, which 
included 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 have been found to have strong resemblances to 
ritual paraphernalia that are used in continuing religious practices by 
the Hopi and Zuni. Some petroglyphs on the Fort Apache Indian 
Reservation have also persuaded archeologists of continuities between 
the earlier identified group and current-day Western Pueblo people. 
Biological information from the site of Grasshopper Pueblo, which is 
located in close proximity to the site listed above, 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 the purpose of 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 
these ancient sites were occupied. Some Apache traditions describe 
interactions with Ancestral Puebloan 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 ancestral Upland Mogollon site. As reported by Welch and Ferguson 
(2005), consultations between the White Mountain Apache Tribe of the 
Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona, and the Navajo Nation, Arizona, New 
Mexico & Utah; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Pueblo of Laguna, New 
Mexico, have indicated that that none of these tribes wish to pursue 
claims of affiliation with sites on White Mountain Apache Tribal lands. 
Finally, the White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache 
Reservation, Arizona, supports the repatriation of human remains and 
associated funerary objects from the ancestral Upland Mogollon site and 
is ready to assist the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico, in their reburial on tribal land.
    Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Arizona State Museum 
have determined, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), that the 185 
cultural item 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. Officials of the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs and Arizona State Museum also have determined, pursuant 
to 25 U.S.C. 3001(2), that there is a relationship of shared group 
identity that can be reasonably traced between the unassociated 
funerary objects and the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the 
Zuni Reservation, New Mexico.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should 
contact John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, Arizona State Museum, 
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, telephone (520) 626-2950, 
before April 14, 2011. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary 
objects to the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico, may proceed after that date if no additional 
claimants come forward.
    The Arizona State Museum is responsible for notifying the Hopi 
Tribe of Arizona; White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache 
Reservation, Arizona; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New 
Mexico, that this notice has been published.


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    Dated: March 9, 2011.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2011-5859 Filed 3-14-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-P