[Federal Register: July 18, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 139)]
[Notices]
[Page 41380-41381]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18jy08-116]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior,
National Park Service, San Juan Island National Historical Park, Friday
Harbor, WA and Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
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 in the possession of the
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, and in the
control of the U.S. Department of the Interior, San Juan Island
National Historical Park, Friday Harbor, WA. The human remains were
removed from a prehistoric archeological site within the boundaries of
San Juan Island National Historical Park, San Juan County, WA.
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
superintendent, San Juan Island National Historical Park.
A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Arizona
State Museum and San Juan Island National Historical Park professional
staff in consultation with representatives of the Lummi Tribe of the
Lummi Reservation, Washington; Samish Indian Tribe, Washington; and
Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation, Washington.
In 1970, human remains representing a minimum of two individuals
were removed from the English Camp Site (45-SJ-24) in San Juan County,
WA, during University of Idaho field school excavations directed by Dr.
Roderick Sprague. The human remains were loaned to the Arizona State
Museum, University of Arizona for non-destructive osteological analysis
by physical anthropologist Walter Birkby. Detailed University of
Arizona, Physical Anthropology Laboratory data sheets were completed
for both sets of remains in May 1974. No known individuals were
identified. No associated funerary objects are present.
In 1995, the remains were listed on the Arizona State Museum NAGPRA
inventory as culturally unidentifiable. In March 2005 National Park
Service staff informed Arizona State Museum that the remains were in
control of San
[[Page 41381]]
Juan Island National Historical Park and should be included on the
park's inventory. National Park Service staff also informed Arizona
State Museum that cultural affiliation could be determined for these
remains.
Based upon skeletal morphology, archeological data, geographic
context and accession documents, the two individuals from the English
Camp Site are of Native American ancestry. Arden King's analysis of
archeological data from another site on San Juan Island resulted in the
identification of three prehistoric phases, with the most recent
representing a maritime adaptation that is ancestral to historic native
populations in the United States and Canada. Archeological research and
analysis indicates continuous habitation of San Juan Island from
approximately 2,000 years ago through the mid-19th century. Recent
analysis of shell middens at the English Camp Site by Professor Julie
Stein of the University of Washington confirms site formation processes
for a 2,000 year period. Anthropologist Wayne Suttles has identified
the occupants of San Juan Island as Northern Straits language-speaking
people, a linguistic subset of a larger Central Coast Salish
population, who were ancestors of the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi
Reservation, Washington. Furthermore, Suttles' anthropological research
in the late 1940s confirmed that the Lummi primarily occupied San Juan
Island and other nearby islands in the contact period and during the
early history of the Lummi Reservation that was established on the
mainland in 1855 through Article II of the Treaty of Point Elliott. San
Juan Island is within the aboriginal territory of the Lummi Tribe of
the Lummi Reservation, Washington. Lummi oral tradition, history and
anthropological data clearly associate the Lummi with San Juan Island.
The National Park Service and the Arizona State Museum consulted
with the Samish Indian Tribe, Washington of Anacortes, WA, and the
Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation, Washington, of La
Conner, WA, because of their potential cultural affiliation and their
expressed interests in the human remains and associated funerary
objects from San Juan Island at the Arizona State Museum, as well as in
an inadvertent discovery of Native American human remains at San Juan
Island National Historical Park in 2003. The Samish Indian Tribe,
Washington is closely associated with the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi
Reservation, Washington linguistically and culturally, and the Samish
regard San Juan Island to be within the usual and accustomed territory
shared by both tribes at the time of the Point Elliott Treaty
negotiations in 1855. In 2006, the Samish Indian Tribe, Washington and
the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington entered into a
cooperative agreement to have the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation,
Washington take the lead in receiving repatriated human remains and
funerary objects from San Juan Island National Historical Park. The
traditional territory of the Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish
Reservation, Washington is on the mainland in the vicinity of La
Conner, WA, on Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island, the site of their
reservation.
Officials of San Juan Island National Historical Park have
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains
described above represent the physical remains of two individuals of
Native American ancestry. Lastly, officials of San Juan Island National
Historical Park 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 the Lummi Tribe of
the Lummi Reservation, Washington.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Peter
Dederich, superintendent, San Juan Island National Historical Park,
P.O. Box 429, Friday Harbor, WA 98250-04289, telephone (360) 378-2240,
before August 18, 2008. Repatriation of the human remains to the Lummi
Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington may proceed after that date
if no additional claimants come forward.
San Juan Island National Historical Park is responsible for
notifying the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Washington; Samish
Indian Tribe, Washington; and Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish
Reservation, Washington that this notice has been published.
Dated: June 10, 2008
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. E8-16463 Filed 7-17-08; 8:45 am]
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