[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 164 (Thursday, August 25, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Page 49949]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-16881]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    This notice rescinds the Federal Register Notice of Intent to 
Repatriate Cultural Items of December 10, 2003, FR Doc. 03-30567, page 
68950. This notice changes the cultural items described in the 
previously published notice from unassociated funerary objects to 
associated funerary objects and adds the human remains representing a 
minimum of one individual.
    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 in the possession of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. The human remains and 
associated funerary objects were removed from West Warwick, Kent 
County, RI.
    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.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by Peabody 
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology professional staff in consultation 
with representatives of the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island.
    In 1957, human remains representing a minimum of one individual 
were removed from West Warwick, Kent County, RI, by Dave Straight. The 
human remains were donated to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology by the Massachusetts Archaeological Society through Maurice 
Robbins later that same year. The human remains were found during the 
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology's inventory process after 
the publication of the Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items on 
December 10, 2003. The two associated funerary objects are one bag of 
bark fragments and one box of brass kettle fragments.
    This interment most likely dates to the post-contact period or 
later (post A.D. 1500). Copper and brass kettles were European trade 
items, and therefore support a post-contact temporal context for the 
burial. In addition, museum documentation describes the human remains 
as ``Narragansett.'' Such a specific attribution suggests that the 
burial dates to the Historic period. The burial context indicates that 
the burial was of a Native American. Oral tradition and historical 
documentation indicate that West Warwick, RI, is within the aboriginal 
and historic homeland of the Narragansett people during the Contact 
period. The present-day tribe representing the Narragansett people is 
the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island.
    Officials of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains 
listed above represent the physical remains of one individual of Native 
American ancestry. Officials of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(A), 
the two objects listed 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. Lastly, officials of the 
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology have determined that, 
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 Narragansett 
Indian Tribe of Rhode Island.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Patricia Capone, Repatriation Coordinator, 
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 
Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, telephone (617) 496-3702, before 
September 26, 2005. Repatriation of the human remains and associated 
funerary objects to the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island may 
proceed after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is responsible for 
notifying the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island that this 
notice has been published.

    Dated: July 22, 2005
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 05-16881 Filed 8-24-05; 8:45 am]
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