[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 52 (Friday, March 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15796-15798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-6334]


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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 the Arizona 
State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
and the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, in consultation 
with the appropriate Indian tribes, have determined that the cultural 
items meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects and 
repatriation to the Indian tribes stated below 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 Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona.

DATES: Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes it has a 
cultural affiliation with the cultural items should contact the Arizona 
State Museum, University of Arizona, at the address below by April 16, 
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. 3005, of the intent to repatriate cultural items 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, 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

    In 1979, cultural items were removed from the Pinnacle Site, site 
AZ P:14:71(ASM), in Navajo County, AZ, during a legally authorized 
survey conducted by the University of Arizona Archaeological Field 
School under the direction of Madeleine Hinkes. A report prepared by 
Hinkes describes the presence of five unauthorized excavation pits at 
this site. The items listed below were found with human burials, but 
the human remains are not present in the collection. There is no record 
in Arizona State Museum files regarding the accession of these cultural 
items. However, the collection likely entered the museum in the same 
year as other collections from the summer field school. The eight 
unassociated funerary objects are 2 animal bone fragments, 1 ceramic 
sherd, 4 pieces of chipped stone and 1 chert scraper.
    The Pinnacle Site consists of a pueblo of about 10 rooms and dates 
from A.D. 1275-1400, based on the ceramic assemblage. The ceramic and 
architectural forms are consistent with the archeologically described 
Upland Mogollon or prehistoric Western Pueblo traditions.
    In 1979, cultural items were removed from an unnamed site, site AZ 
P:14:281(ASM), in Navajo County, AZ, during a legally authorized survey 
conducted by the University of Arizona Archaeological Field School 
under the direction of Madeleine Hinkes. A report prepared by Hinkes 
describes the presence of at least 70 unauthorized excavation pits at 
this site. The items were found with human burials, but the human 
remains are not present in the collection. There is no record in 
Arizona

[[Page 15797]]

State Museum files regarding the accession of these cultural items. 
However, the collection likely entered the museum in the same year as 
other collections from the summer field school. The 1,116 unassociated 
funerary objects are 7 ceramic bowls, 2 ceramic jars and 1,107 ceramic 
sherds.
    Site AZ P:14:281 contains a pueblo of about 31 rooms with 
additional stone alignments and dates from A.D. 1275-1400, based on the 
ceramic assemblage. 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 sites are 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 sites 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 sites 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 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 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 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 their 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

    Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Arizona State 
Museum have determined that:
    <bullet> Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 1,124 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 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 unassociated funerary objects should 
contact John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, Arizona State Museum, 
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, telephone (520) 626-2950 
before April 16, 2012. 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 Indian 
Reservation; and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico, 
that this notice has been published.


[[Page 15798]]


    Dated: March 12, 2012.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2012-6334 Filed 3-15-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-P