[Federal Register: October 18, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 200)]
[Notices]               
[Page 56224]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18oc99-72]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

 
Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items from the Willamette 
Valley, OR in the Possession of Willamette University, Salem, OR

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is hereby given under the Native American Graves Protection 
and Repatriation Act, 43 CFR 10.10 (a)(3), of the intent to repatriate 
cultural items in the possession of Willamette University which meet 
the definition of ``unassociated funerary object'' under Section 2 of 
the Act.
    The 405 cultural items include bagged specimens of rock, charcoal, 
and soil, flaked and groundstone tools, carved stone bowl fragments and 
figurines, animal teeth and bone fragments (probably bovid), and an 
antler.
    During 1930-1970, these cultural items were recovered from 
Kalapooyan burial mounds (Weather, Miller, (Miller's Farm), and 
Wendling) in the Willamette Valley near the Oregon towns of Harrisburg, 
Halsey, and Shedd during excavations conducted by Willamette University 
students, operating either independently or with a professor. The 
cultural items have been identified from the handwritten labels noting 
these locations.
    Based on historic documents and ethnographic evidence, the 
Willamette Valley is recognized as the traditional territory of the 
Kalapooyan tribes. Based on ethnographic sources and archeological 
reports, the Weather, Miller, and Wendling sites in the Willamette 
Valley have been identified as Kalapooyan burial mounds. Present-day 
Kalapooyan people are represented by the Confederated Tribes of the 
Grand Ronde Community of Oregon.
    Based on the above mentioned information, officials of Willamette 
University have determined that, pursuant to 43 CFR 10.2 (d)(2)(ii), 
these 405 cultural items 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 an 
Native American individual. Officials of Willamette University have 
also determined that, pursuant to 43 CFR 10.2 (e), there is a 
relationship of shared group identity which can be reasonably traced 
between these items and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde 
Community of Oregon.
    This notice has been sent to officials of the Confederated Tribes 
of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of the 
Siletz Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs 
Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama 
Indian Nation of the Yakama Reservation, and the Klamath Indian Tribe 
of Oregon. Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes 
itself to be culturally affiliated with these objects should contact 
John Olbrantz, Director, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette 
University, 900 State St., Salem, OR 97301-3931; telephone: (503) 370-
6855 before November 17, 1999. Repatriation of these objects to the 
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon may begin 
after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The National Park Service is not responsible for the determinations 
within this notice.
Dated: October 1, 1999.
Francis P. McManamon,
Departmental Consulting Archeologist, Manager, Archeology and 
Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 99-27127 Filed 10-15-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F