[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 185 (Friday, September 24, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58432-58433]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-23903]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 
Portland District, Portland, OR and University of Oregon Museum of 
Natural and Cultural History, Eugene, OR

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is here given in accordance with provisions of 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 for which the University of Oregon Museum of Natural 
and Cultural History, Eugene, OR, and U.S. Department of Defense, Army 
Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR, have joint 
responsibility. The human remains and associated funerary objects were 
removed from a site on Army Corps of Engineers land within the John Day 
Dam project area, Gilliam County, OR.
    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 the 
University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History and U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, professional staff in 
consultation with representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the 
Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon; Confederated Tribes and Bands of 
the Yakama Nation, Washington; Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla 
Indian Reservation, Oregon; and Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho.
    Native American cultural items described in this notice were 
excavated under Antiquities Act permits by the University of Oregon, 
Eugene, OR, on Army Corps of Engineers project land. Following 
excavations at the site described below, and under the provisions of 
the permits, the University of Oregon retained the collections for 
preservation.
    Between 1959 and 1968, human remains representing a minimum of 134 
individuals were removed from site 35-GM-9, also known as the Wildcat 
Canyon site, Gilliam County, OR, during excavations by the University 
of Oregon prior to construction of the John Day Dam. No known 
individuals were identified. The 1,182 associated funerary objects are 
41 projectile points, 8 projectile point fragments, 2 chert bifacial 
tips, 6 stone knives, 2 knife fragments, 17 blades, 14 blade fragments, 
3 crude chert bifaces, 1 bifacially-modified obsidian crescent, 19 
scrapers, 4 utilized flakes, 41 worked flakes, 2 cores, 1 worked shale 
piece, 4 shaft smoothers, 3 abrading stones, 8 gravers, 1 burin, 1 
needle, 1 chert drill, 3 choppers, 2 hopper mortars, 2 net sinkers, 4 
hammerstones, 3 stone mauls, 5 pestles, 2 large pestle fragments, 84 
basalt fragments, 3 chert fragments, 663 unmodified flakes, 1 
thermally-fractured rock, 2 columnar slabs, 1 fractured cobble, 1 
flaked cobble, 1 stone pendant, 1 stone ring, 5 round stones, 1 girdled 
stone, 2 pierced stones, 49 pebbles, 1 girdled pebble, 9 broken 
pebbles, 1 worked scoria piece, 34 dentalium shells, 1 pectin shell, 1 
incised bead, 8 steatite beads, 12 bone beads, 3 vials of bone beads, 4 
fossil crinoid beads, 10 stone beads, 3 unspecified beads, 21 worked 
antlers/fragments, 2 vials of antler/bone, 1 vial of elk teeth, 2 
faunal effigies, 2 awls, 1 bone tube fragment, 16 worked non-human 
bones/fragments, 18 non-human bones/fragments, 11 burned non-human bone 
fragments, 6 red ochre pieces, and 1 green chalk piece.
    Site 35-GM-9 is located along the south side shoreline of the 
Columbia River, approximately 9.5 river miles east of the John Day 
River confluence. The multicomponent site contains multiple activity 
areas that are believed to have been repeatedly occupied from 
approximately 9,000 B.P. to A.D. 1750. Site 35-GM-9 frequently served 
as a village, camping area and cemetery. Based on distinctive 
osteological evidence, the associated funerary objects and the location 
of the human remains within the site, all the individuals have been 
determined to be Native American.
    Oral traditions and ethnographic reports indicate that site 35-GM-9 
lies within the historic territory of Sahaptin-speaking Tenino or Warm 
Springs peoples whose descendants are culturally-affiliated with the 
present-day Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of 
Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation is 
composed of three Wasco bands, four Warm Springs bands, and Northern 
Paiutes. The Columbia River-based Wasco were the easternmost group of 
Chinookan-speaking Indians. The Sahaptin-speaking Warm Springs bands 
lived farther east along the Columbia River and its tributaries. 
Northern Paiutes, who spoke a Uto-Aztecan language, historically 
occupied much of southeastern Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of the 
Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon peoples also traditionally shared 
the site area with relatives and neighbors whose descendants may be 
culturally affiliated with the 14 Sahaptin, Salish and Chinookan-
speaking tribes and bands of the present-day Confederated Tribes and 
Bands of the Yakama Nation, Washington. Yakama homelands were 
traditionally located on the Washington side of the Columbia River 
between the eastern flanks of the Cascade Range and the lower reaches 
of the Yakima River drainage.
    Officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, 
and University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), the human remains 
described above represent the physical remains of at least 134 
individuals of Native American ancestry. Officials of the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers, Portland District, and University of Oregon Museum 
of Natural and Cultural History, have also determined that, pursuant to 
25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 1,182 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. 
Lastly, officials of the U.S. Army Corps of

[[Page 58433]]

Engineers, Portland District, and University of Oregon Museum of 
Natural and Cultural History, 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 Confederated Tribes of the Warm 
Springs Reservation of Oregon and/or Confederated Tribes and Bands of 
the Yakama Nation, Washington.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Daniel Mulligan, NAGPRA Coordinator, 
Environmental Resources Branch, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland 
District, P.O. Box 2946, Portland, OR 97208-2946, telephone (503) 808-
4768, before October 25, 2010. Repatriation of the human remains and 
associated funerary objects to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm 
Springs Reservation of Oregon and/or Confederated Tribes and Bands of 
the Yakama Nation, Washington, may proceed after this date if no 
additional claimants come forward.
    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, is responsible 
for notifying the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation 
of Oregon and Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, 
Washington, that this notice has been published.

    Dated: September 10, 2010
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2010-23903 Filed 9-23-10; 8:45 am]
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