Document Headings

                    Document headings vary by document type but may contain                    the following:                  
                -                       the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document                    
                -                       the number of the CFR title and the number of each part                      the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly                      related to                    
                -                       the agency docket number / agency internal file number                    
                -                       the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in                      the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory                      Actions                    

                    See the                                          Document Drafting Handbook                                        for more details.                  

###### Department of the Interior

###### National Park Service

          - [NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0036822; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]

# AGENCY:

National Park Service, Interior.

# ACTION:

Notice.

# SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM Alaska) intends to repatriate certain a cultural item that meets the definition of an unassociated funerary object and that has a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The cultural item was removed from the Nome Census Area, AK.

# DATES:

Repatriation of the cultural item in this notice may occur on or after November 24, 2023.

# ADDRESSES:

                        Robert E. King, Bureau of Land Management, 222 W 7th Avenue, #13, Anchorage, AK 99513, telephone (907) 271-5510, email                         *r2king@blm.gov.*

# 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 BLM Alaska. The National Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice. Additional information on the determinations in this notice, including                           ( print page 73364)                        the results of consultation, can be found in the inventory or related records held by BLM Alaska.                

## Description

Most likely in the 1950s or 1960s, one cultural item was removed from the vicinity of Wales in the Nome Census Area, AK, and was placed in the collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University in Providence, RI. (The museum's sponsorship of multiple expeditions to Alaska in the mid-20th century might account for its custody of this cultural item.) The one unassociated funerary object is a polar bear cranium marked “Polar bear from burial site near Wales.”

## Cultural Affiliation

The cultural item in this notice is 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: anthropological, oral traditional, and museum records.

## Determinations

Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations, BLM Alaska has determined that:
    - The one cultural item described above is 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 item and the Native Village of Wales.

## Requests for Repatriation

                    Written requests for repatriation of the cultural item 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 item in this notice to a requestor may occur on or after November 24, 2023. If competing requests for repatriation are received, BLM Alaska must determine the most appropriate requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for joint repatriation of this cultural item is considered a single request and not competing requests. BLM Alaska is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribe identified in this notice.

*Authority:*                     Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.8, § 10.10, and § 10.14.                

Dated: October 18, 2023.

Melanie O'Brien,

Manager, National NAGPRA Program.

[FR Doc. 2023-23554 Filed 10-24-23; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4312-52-P