[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 52 (Friday, March 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Page 15798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-6330]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[2253-665]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: The Colorado 
College, Colorado Springs, CO

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Colorado College, in consultation with the appropriate 
Indian tribe, has determined that the cultural items meet the 
definition of unassociated funerary objects and repatriation to the 
Hopi Tribe of Arizona may occur if no additional claimants come 
forward. Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes itself to be 
culturally affiliated with the cultural items may contact The Colorado 
College.

DATES: Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes it has a 
cultural affiliation with the cultural items should contact The 
Colorado College at the address below by April 16, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Jermyn Davis, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Colorado 
College, Armstrong Hall, Room 201, 14 E. Cache La Poudre, Colorado 
Springs, CO 80903, telephone (719) 389-6201.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is hereby 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 Colorado College 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

    The 36 unassociated funerary objects are ceramic vessels, at least 
two of which contain corn. The vessels are bowls, mugs, pitchers, vases 
(seed jars), jars and ladles. The vessel styles are black-on-gray, 
black-on-white, Tusayan black-on-red, corrugated and gray ware. Between 
1897 and 1898, human remains, associated and unassociated funerary 
objects, as well as other cultural items were removed from a cliff ruin 
in a canyon tributary of Comb Wash, San Juan County, UT, under the 
auspices of the Lang Expedition of 1897-1898. Prior to 1900, General 
William Jackson Palmer acquired what became known as the Lang-Bixby 
Collection, which he subsequently transferred to The Colorado College. 
Beginning in the late 1960s, the Lang-Bixby Collection was transferred, 
along with other collections from The Colorado College Museum, through 
long-term loans to the Fine Arts Center (formerly known as the Taylor 
Museum and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) and the Denver Museum 
of Nature & Science (formerly known as the Denver Museum of Natural 
History). In 1993, the Fine Arts Center included the unassociated 
funerary objects from the Lang-Bixby Collection in its NAGPRA summary.
    The unassociated funerary objects are ancestral Puebloan based on 
type and style. The human remains and associated funerary objects from 
this collection were described in two Notices of Inventory Completion 
(NICs) published in the Federal Register (74 FR 42105-42106, August 20, 
2009, and 69 FR 19232-19233, April 12, 2004). The human remains and 
associated funerary objects were determined to be Ancestral Puebloan. A 
relationship of shared group identity can reasonably be traced between 
ancestral Puebloan peoples and modern Puebloan peoples based on oral 
tradition and scientific studies. The human remains and associated 
funerary objects have been repatriated to the Hopi Tribe of Arizona. A 
preponderance of the evidence supports cultural affiliation of the 
unassociated funerary objects to the Hopi Tribe of Arizona.

Determinations Made by The Colorado College

    Officials of The Colorado College have determined that:
    <bullet> Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 36 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.
    <bullet> Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(2), there is a relationship of 
shared group identity that can be reasonably traced between the 
unassociated funerary objects and the Hopi Tribe of Arizona.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should 
contact Jermyn Davis, Chief of Staff, President's Office, Colorado 
College, Armstrong Hall, Room 201, 14 E. Cache La Poudre, Colorado 
Springs, Colorado 80903, telephone (719) 389-6201, before April 16, 
2012. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary objects to the Hopi 
Tribe of Arizona may proceed after that date if no additional claimants 
come forward.
    The Colorado College is responsible for notifying the Hopi Tribe of 
Arizona that this notice has been published.

    Dated: March 12, 2012.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2012-6330 Filed 3-15-12; 8:45 am]
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