[Federal Register: October 26, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 206)]
[Notices]
[Page 61837-61838]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26oc05-118]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item: U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM,
and Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL
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. 3005, of the intent
to repatriate a cultural item in the control of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest, Silver City, NM, and
in the possession of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL,
that meets the definition of ``unassociated funerary object'' under 25
U.S.C. 3001. The cultural item was removed from the Gila National
Forest, Catron County, NM.
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 cultural
items. The National Park Service is not responsible for the
determinations in this notice.
The cultural item is a small San Francisco Red pottery jar.
A detailed assessment of the cultural item was made by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest and the
Field Museum of Natural History professional staff in consultation with
the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of
the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico.
In 1954, the cultural item was removed from Valley View Pueblo in
the Gila National Forest, Catron County, NM, during legally authorized
excavations and collected by Dr. Paul S. Martin of the Field Museum of
Natural History, Chicago, IL. In August 2005, the Field Museum of
Natural History, Chicago, IL, found an unassociated funerary object
among its collections that had been taken from Gila National Forest,
Catron County, NM, by Dr. Martin. Unassociated funerary objects removed
from Gila National Forest, Catron County, NM, were previously published
in the Federal Register of June 1, 2005, FR Doc. 05-10805, page 31510,
and in a subsequently corrected Notice of Intent to Repatriate
published in the Federal Register on August 3, 2005, FR Doc. 05-15322,
page 44687.
Material culture, architecture, and site organization indicate that
Valley View Pueblo is an Upland Mogollon site occupied between A.D. 550
and 1150. The territory of the Upland Mogollon stretched from south-
central Arizona to south-central New Mexico. The Upland Mogollon
territories are claimed, currently inhabited, or used by the Hopi
Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni
Reservation, New Mexico. Most archeological evidence linking Upland
Mogollon to present-day Indian tribes relies on ceramics that suggest
cultural connections between these groups. Present-day descendants of
the Upland Mogollon are the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New
Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico. Oral
traditions preserved in the ethnographic literature and presented by
representatives of the Hopi Tribe,
[[Page 61838]]
Arizona; Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni
Reservation, New Mexico support cultural affiliation.
Officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Gila National Forest have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001
(3)(B), the cultural item described above is 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 is believed,
by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed from a
specific burial site of an Native American individual. Officials of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National Forest
have also 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 unassociated funerary object and the Hopi Tribe, Arizona;
Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation,
New Mexico.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary object should
contact Dr. Frank E. Wozniak, NAGPRA Coordinator, Southwestern Region,
USDA Forest Service, 333 Broadway Blvd., SE, Albuquerque, NM 87102,
telephone (505) 842-3238, before November 25, 2005. Repatriation of the
unassociated funerary object to the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of
Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico
may proceed after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Gila National
Forest is responsible for notifying the Hopi Tribe, Arizona; Pueblo of
Acoma, New Mexico; and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico
that this notice has been published.
Dated: September 12, 2005.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 05-21331 Filed 10-25-05; 8:45 am]
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