[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 38 (Monday, February 27, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11578-11580]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-4510]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[2253-665]


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior, 
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, DC, and the Arizona State Museum, 
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian 
Affairs, and the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, have 
completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary 
objects, in

[[Page 11579]]

consultation with the appropriate Indian tribes, and have determined 
that there is a cultural affiliation between the human remains and 
associated funerary objects and present-day Indian tribes. 
Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes itself to be 
culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects may contact the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona. 
Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary objects to 
the Indian tribes stated below may occur if no additional claimants 
come forward.

DATES: Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes it has a 
cultural affiliation with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, 
at the address below by March 28, 2012.

ADDRESSES: John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, P.O. Box 210026, 
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, 
telephone (520) 626-2950.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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 and 
associated funerary objects 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 (ASM). The human remains and associated funerary objects 
were removed from a location within the boundaries of the Fort Apache 
Indian Reservation, Navajo County, AZ.
    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 and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the ASM 
professional staff in consultation with representatives of 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.

History and Description of the Remains

    In the years 1963 through 1977, human remains representing, at 
minimum, 1,148 individuals were removed from the Grasshopper Pueblo, 
site AZ P:14:1 (ASM), in Navajo County, AZ, as a result of legally 
authorized excavations conducted by the University of Arizona 
Archaeological Field School. Archaeological collections from the site 
were brought to the museum at the end of each field season. No known 
individuals were identified. The 1,703 associated funerary objects are 
4 animal bones, 3 animal claws, 7 antler artifacts, 1 antler fragment, 
9 bone artifacts, 32 bone awls, 3 bone awl fragments, 4 bone beads, 2 
bone hairpins, 2 bone needles, 1 bone needle fragment, 3 bone 
ornaments, 14 bone rings, 1 bone spatula, 1 bone wand, 556 ceramic 
bowls, 39 ceramic bowl fragments, 2 ceramic canteens, 1 ceramic disk, 1 
ceramic drill, 1 ceramic figurine fragment, 179 ceramic jars, 12 
ceramic jar fragments, 1 ceramic pendant, 8 ceramic pitchers, 1 ceramic 
pitcher fragment, 1 ceramic plate, 4 ceramic scoops, 33 ceramic sherds, 
3 ceramic sherd artifacts, 9 pieces of chipped stone, 1 chipped stone 
core, 2 pieces of chipped stone debris, 44 chipped stone flakes, 1 lot 
of clay, 1 clay jar, 1 clay lid fragment, 1 coral fossil, 1 cotton 
ball, 5 fossils, 1 hammerstone, 1 handstone, 9 manos, 4 mano fragments, 
16 lots of mineral, 2 pieces of mortar, 12 polishing stones, 28 quartz 
crystals, 7 shells, 5 shell artifacts, 1 shell artifact fragment, 129 
shell beads, 11 shell bracelets, 2 shell bracelet fragments, 1 shell 
necklace, 1 shell ornament, 21 shell pendants, 3 shell pendant 
fragments, 4 shell rings, 21 shell tinklers, 1 shell tinkler fragment, 
2 soil impressions, 1 stone, 10 stone artifacts, 1 stone awl, 1 stone 
axe, 1 stone ball, 110 stone beads, 1 stone bowl, 1 stone concretion, 1 
stone cylinder, 1 stone disk, 5 stone figurines, 1 stone handstone, 3 
stone knives, 2 stone pebbles, 7 stone pendants, 209 stone projectile 
points, 3 stone projectile point fragments, 5 stone shaft smoothers, 1 
stone shaft straightener, 1 stone slab, 1 textile cord, 5 turquoise 
beads, 42 turquoise pendants, 12 turquoise tesserae, and 1 wood mat 
fragment.
    The Grasshopper Pueblo site is a large village site containing 
approximately 500 rooms in more than a dozen stone room blocks arranged 
around three main plazas. The site has been dated from A.D. 1275-1400, 
based on tree ring dates, architectural forms, building technology and 
ceramic styles. These characteristics, the mortuary pattern and other 
items of material culture 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 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 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

[[Page 11580]]

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 
Grasshopper Pueblo 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 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 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 
this site and is ready to assist the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni 
Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico, in the reburial.

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

    Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Arizona State 
Museum have determined that:
    <bullet> Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), the human remains described 
in this notice represent the physical remains of 1,148 individuals of 
Native American ancestry.
    <bullet> Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 1,703 objects 
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.
    <bullet> 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 associated funerary objects and the Hopi 
Tribe of Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, Arizona 
State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, telephone (520) 
626-2950, before March 28, 2012. Repatriation of the human remains and 
associated 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 the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New 
Mexico, that this notice has been published.

    Dated: February 22, 2012.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2012-4510 Filed 2-24-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-P