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[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 116 (Thursday, June 18, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28944-28945]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-14296]

[[Page 28944]]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District, Sacramento, CA; U.S. 
Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Sequoia & Kings 
Canyon National Parks, Three Rivers, CA; and Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of 
Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    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 control of the U.S. Department of Defense, Army Corps of 
Engineers, Sacramento District, Sacramento, CA, and in the physical 
custody of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of 
California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, and the U.S. Department of the 
Interior, National Park Service, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, 
Three Rivers, CA. The human remains and associated funerary objects 
were removed from within the boundaries of Lake Kaweah, Tulare County, 
CA.
    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.
    An assessment of the human remains in the physical custody of the 
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology was made by the museum's 
professional staff. Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks also did an 
assessment of the human remains and associated funerary objects in 
their physical custody. The assessment of the cultural affiliation for 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District was based on a 
Corps of Engineers contracted study done in 2004, titled ``Cultural 
Affiliation of the Lake Kaweah Property, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 
Sacramento District.'' These assessments were made based on the results 
of an extensive study utilizing the four fields of anthropology. Copies 
of the report were sent to representatives of the Big Sandy Rancheria 
of Mono Indians of California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians 
of California; Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; 
Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa 
Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table 
Mountain Rancheria of California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule 
River Reservation, California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of 
the Tuolumne Rancheria of California. Consultation was also carried out 
by Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks' professional staff with the 
following non-Federally recognized Indian groups, which represent 
traditionally associated peoples who have maintained interest in 
previous repatriation and reburial efforts for the area: Dunlap Band of 
Mono Indians, Sierra Foothill Wuksachi Tribe, Sierra Nevada Native 
American Coalition, and Wukchumni Tribal Council.
    Between 1959 and 1961, human remains were removed from CA-TUL-145 
(``Cobble Lodge''), Tulare County, CA. In 1959, the human remains were 
removed during an excavation of a borrow pit in support of the 
construction of Terminus Dam and the creation of the reservoir that 
forms Lake Kaweah, a Federal project undertaken and still managed by 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Between 1960 and 1961, human remains 
were removed during salvage work being carried out by Dr. Jay von 
Werlhof, under contracts coordinated by the National Park Service at 
the request of the Army Corps. The report by Dr. von Werlhof (1961) 
identified 130 individuals and 502 artifacts. An unidentified number of 
fragmentary and skeletal remains were re-interred at the site following 
the field work. Human remains were transferred to the museum at the 
University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, human remains and 
associated funerary objects were deposited at the Ash Mountain 
Headquarters of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. One brownware 
pottery vessel had been transferred to the University of New Mexico 
(Maxwell Museum), and is now in the physical custody of the Sequoia & 
Kings Canyon National Parks. The human remains in the physical custody 
of the University of California, Berkeley and Sequoia & Kings Canyon 
National Parks represent a minimum of five individuals. No known 
individuals were identified. The 120 associated funerary objects are 16 
projectile points, 25 bifaces and fragments, 5 modified flaked stones, 
18 flaked stones/debitage, 16 ground stone artifacts, 16 steatite 
artifacts, 1 brownware pottery sherd, 1 brownware vessel, 6 faunal 
remains, and 16 marine shell ornaments.
    The Cobble Lodge materials in the possession of Sequoia & Kings 
Canyon National Parks have been re-examined by URS, Inc. (Browning and 
Nilsson 2007). The artifact assemblage includes chipped stone 
projectile points (Desert Series, Cottonwood, Rose Spring, and Sierra 
Concave Base), steatite vessels and beads, marine shell ornaments, and 
the single brownware vessel. These temporally diagnostic artifacts 
support an interpretation that the site is a multiple component site 
that would have been occupied circa 300 B.C. to A.D. 1850. The report 
by von Werlhof (1961) interpreted Cobble Lodge to be a late Prehistoric 
housepit village and cemetery, and to have been permanently occupied 
until the early 1860s. This suite of artifact types is most strongly 
affiliated in the archeological record with the Yokuts and Western Mono 
(Monache) cultural groups.
    Geographic and linguistic evidence also places Yokuts and Western 
Mono (Monache) groups within the western foothills of the southern 
Sierra Nevada during this time period. Descendants of the Yokuts and 
Western Mono (Monache) are members of the Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono 
Indians of California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of 
California; Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; Picayune 
Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa Indian 
Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table Mountain 
Rancheria of California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River 
Reservation, California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the 
Tuolumne Rancheria of California.
    Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District and 
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks have determined that, pursuant to 
25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains described above represent the 
physical remains of five individuals of Native American ancestry. 
Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District and 
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks also have determined that, 
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(A), the 120 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 Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento 
District 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

[[Page 28945]]

remains and associated funerary objects and the Big Sandy Rancheria of 
Mono Indians of California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of 
California; Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; Picayune 
Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa Indian 
Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table Mountain 
Rancheria of California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River 
Reservation, California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the 
Tuolumne Rancheria of California.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Richard Perry, NAGPRA Point of Contact, USACE 
Army Corps of Engineers, 1325 J St., Sacramento, CA 95814, telephone 
(916) 557-5218, before July 20, 2009. Repatriation of the human remains 
and associated funerary objects to the Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono 
Indians of California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of 
California; Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; Picayune 
Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa Indian 
Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table Mountain 
Rancheria of California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River 
Reservation, California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the 
Tuolumne Rancheria of California may proceed after that date if no 
additional claimants come forward.
    Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District are 
responsible for notifying the Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono Indians of 
California; Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; 
Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California; Picayune Rancheria 
of Chukchansi Indians of California; Santa Rosa Indian Community of the 
Santa Rosa Rancheria, California; Table Mountain Rancheria of 
California; Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation, 
California; and Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the Tuolumne 
Rancheria of California that this notice has been published.

    Dated: May 18, 2009
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-14296 Filed 6-17-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S
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